‘I want to scream it from the rooftops now […] there are other pathways’: What young people learned from a co-designed post-secondary transition programme

Abstract

This paper uses the framework of transition as becoming to explore what young people learned from participating in a post-secondary transition program that was co-designed by young people. The 9-week youth participatory action research (YPAR) involved six staff collaborators (SCs) and seven youth collaborators (YCs). Data comprised recordings of weekly group meetings, group interviews, reflections and artefacts such as planning documents, graphic organisers and writing. We discuss the findings using two themes that we identified together as a team of YCs and SCs. The first represents how YCs became aware of and vocalised understandings of life after secondary school as a diverse and fluid process. The second describes and interrogates how YCs became more confident and empowered, showing the importance of critical consciousness, reflection and action in seeking transformation. We conclude that conceptualising transition as becoming enables us to collectively make sense of the diverse ways we co-construct life experiences and directions.