A sociocultural approach to children in the transition from home to kindergarten

This chapter presents a reconceptualised framework developed from two empirical studies in Hong Kong that investigated the strategic actions of young children settling into various classroom situations during the transition from home to kindergarten. The theoretical framework is developed from sociocultural theory and select literature on rites of passage and pupil career. The major elements are derived from Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory and Wertsch’s concept of mediated action to understand how children cope with various situations in the situated contexts; van Gennep’s (The rites of passage. (B. V. Minika & G. L. Caffee, Trans.). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. (Original work published 1910), 1960) notion of rites of passage to understand children’s transition from home to kindergarten as a process of context and social status change; and Pollard and Filer’s notion of pupil career to understand children’s kindergarten preparedness (readiness) and adaptation. It highlights the interrelationships between children’s strategic actions and layers of cultural, historical and institutional context, stages of transition, and the directions for assessing adaptation. Copyright © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.