Challenges in Transition: Educational Support and School Mobility for Children from Military Families Across the U.K. Home Nations

Abstract

Existing research on geographic mobility and educational or career transitions has largely concentrated on voluntary moves or international migration, leaving limited attention to the sub-national mobility of children from military families. This article addresses this gap by examining the experiences of younger students who relocate frequently within national borders due to parental military service, drawing on qualitative research with these children and the educators who support them. Frequent relocations pose distinctive challenges, including navigating different education systems and coping with disrupted social networks. To mitigate these disruptions, children and schools often cultivate experiences of ‘familiarity’, reinforcing a shared military identity. While this identity can ease transitions, our findings reveal tensions for children moving to regions with minimal armed forces presence or for those who resist close association with their military background. By highlighting these nuanced dynamics, this study extends current understandings of mobility and education, offering insights into an underexplored population whose experiences complicate dominant narratives of geographic mobility.