Students in transition: Teacher as researcher

The purpose of this research was to hear the stories of eight Grade 10 students about their change from Grade 9 to Grade 10 in order to (1) find out what they found difficult or helpful; (2) to find out, based on their stories, what can be done to improve the transition; and (3) to help students examine the difference, as defined by Hertzog and Morgan (1999), between a one-time event over which they have no control, and an ongoing process of transition that can be reflected upon and improved when understood. My goal was to explore with the students the meaning attributed to this transition. In addition, I have worked with them to generate possible ways for improving the transition process. From this perspective, my intent was to engage students in a qualitative participatory research project that was relevant to their lives. I reflected upon and made sense of my observations and experiences for the purpose of applying them to my practice as a teacher. This research was important to me as a teacher who helps students adjust to a high school culture which, in many ways, is different from the junior high culture. The two forms of transition, systemic and developmental, proposed by Queen (2002) were readily apparent in my research. The participants I spoke with all reported varying degrees of anxiety about what to expect from teachers and how they might meet what they perceived to be the higher expectations of teachers and parents. This kind of anxiety is relevant to the category of systemic transition developed in Queen's (2002) study. Again, in keeping with his findings, most of my participants seemed to experience the second level of transition which includes such issues as: how to establish friendships with peers, how to fit with peers, how to make decisions about drug and alcohol use.