The transition experiences of an international postgraduate student: Her narrative

Abstract

In this article I focus on some of the educational transition experiences and consequent coping mechanisms of a former student of mine, Berenice. She was one of five Master’s students who participated in my doctoral research where I used Narrative Inquiry to research their lived experiences. What I discovered was that despite some commonalities, all five had unique transition experiences with which they coped in various ways. Through this article it is my hope that something is glimpsed of this one student’s transition by exploring the stories she told (here presented as co-constructed narrative extracts from her journal) over the academic year and the meanings she attributed to them.