Questioning continuity: On children’s transition from day-care to kindergarten class in Denmark

Abstract

Abstract Transition to school is recurrently pointed out as key to children’s immediate well-being at school start, as well as to their long-term educational endeavors. Aspirations towards continuity during transition is a common denominator across research, policy, and practice, in Denmark as well as internationally. This theoretical-conceptual paper problematizes continuity as a fluent or empty signifier within the transition field. This implies that, within transition theory and practice, the question of how continuity may be institutionally organized, as well as professionally facilitated, is a complex issue. By highlighting how Danish transition practices instantiate an ambivalence between a Nordic, child-centered kindergarten legacy from Fröbel, and an Angloamerican approach to academic accomplishments, the question of continuity is theoretically problematized. This leads to a socio-culturally informed discussion of change as a constitutive factor in transition, and of continuity as a matter of children’s trajectories of experience, learning, and development across divergent institutional settings. The findings imply a fundamental questioning of ambitions towards smoothing out transitions as a means for ensuring continuity. This has the implication that, within the fundamentally ambivalent Danish early childhood educational landscape, change and transformation may be valorized, rather than merely problematized. In addition, continuity may be approached as a matter of children’s trajectories of sense-making across diverse institutional settings. This reconceptualization may also inspire international transition practices.