Two Decades of Transition Pedagogy: Validating Key Principles for our Education Futures

Abstract

For two decades, transition pedagogy’s integrative framework has delivered practical guidance for higher education’s universal design to support diverse students in transition - proactively, affirmatively and holistically. This final article in the Student Success special issue’s reflective trilogy will examine the framework’s three signature features: its anchoring in inclusive curriculum design; its advancement of whole-of-institution approaches; and, the prescient focus on enabling academic and professional partnerships with students. Particularly, I will demonstrate how each of these interrelated foci has now been validated and mainstreamed as essential to universalising student success. Consideration will then be given to “what’s next” for transition pedagogy’s third decade as we face education futures of increasing volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Across the pages, the urgency of the system-wide call to action is clear. We must commit culturally and structurally to the next-gen embedding of these signature enablers if the elusive goal of equitable student success for all is to be realised.