Possibilities for a Transition With Dignity: Trialing and Silos in New Zealand

• In Event: Vocational and Transitional Programming in Special Education

Abstract

Interagency collaboration in planning for transition from school to adulthood for students with disabilities remains a fundamental challenge for those involved (e.g., student, parents, educators, service providers, community agencies). This paper presents findings from a 6-month ethnographic study in New Zealand, which confirmed the existence of specific challenges within the trialling of post-school options, and breakdowns in collaborations perceived by those involved, here called silos. New Zealand positions transition less as a procedural exit from school, and more as one aspect over the longer course of a successful and integrated life, necessitating a unique way of handling interagency collaboration. Analysis, therefore, is possibility-based, theoretically framed by the capability approach (Nussbaum, 2006) in order to propose a transition with dignity.

Authors

• Sarah M Hart, University of Hartford

• Janet S. Gaffney, The University of Auckland

• Mary F. Hill, University of Auckland