Threatened identities: The experiences of women in transition to programmes of professional higher education

The aim of the research described in this article was to investigate how wo men experience the transition to programmes of professional higher educatio n. The investigation took place in a school of a British university where t he professional areas chosen were social work and health carl education. Mo st of the participants were new to the higher education system and were ent ering as mature students, but a few were making educational transitions and had previous involvement in higher education. As the central focus was an investigation of subjective accounts, a phenomenological perspective was ad opted and the methods used were mainly qualitative. A multiple methods appr oach to data collection was taken. The investigation took place over two ph ases, covering the period of transition to programmes over two consecutive years. Anxieties were commonly experienced by participants in the transitio n to their programme. Breakwell's (1986) theory of threatened identities se ems useful in understanding the emerging issues. Anxieties could be explain ed in terms of threats to identity 'principles'; however, these arose from the social context and coping with them is not always psychologically based . Issues which appear to assist the transition are highlighted. Copyright ( C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.