Transition from nonformal schools: learning through photo elicitation in educational fieldwork in Bangladesh

Transition between schools often raises difficulties for young people and their families. In this study of transition from nonformal primary to formal high schools in Bangladesh, difficulties include not only making new relationships and adapting to new norms, but adjusting to a different approach to educating disadvantaged people. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory is used as an interpretive framework to explore pupils’ school and learning experiences; this theoretical framework attends to the significance of several levels of the context to youth development. Images are employed in a research process where formal high school students made connections with their past experiences. Images of their nonformal primary school are found to evoke strong feelings and concrete memories which illuminate the many dimensions of the challenge of transition.