Placements as Mediational Transitions: An Opportunity for Negotiated, Identity-shaping Make-belief Experiences

Engaging with a critical view of discourses on the transition between university and the workplace, the chapter follows Julie’s placement experience and presents the less told story of placements as consequential (mediational) transitions (Beach, 1999; 2003). It argues that short-term placements can be experienced and explained not as the successful development of employability, but as a safe environment to reinforce a student identity (Oliveira, 2017). The chapter is placed within (and against) the context of dominant discourses on employability in higher education (Gracia, 2009; Jackson, 2014; O’Donovan, 2018), where placements are described as instrumental tools for employability. Engaging with sociocultural theories, the chapter offers an alternative narrative of the transition between school and work as multidimensional. It focuses on the students in transition, the settings, and the interactions between the students and the settings, where new meanings, identities and artefacts are created. Ultimately, this chapter portrays placements as developmental opportunities for students to experiment with possible professional futures.