The Challenge of Change: Reworking Schlossberg’s Transition Theory for Support Navigators

In this thesis, I rework Schlossberg’s Transition Theory by tailoring it to the work of support navigators (non-counselor support professionals, such as professors and physicians, as well as support paraprofessionals). The revised framework aims to provide guidance to reduce the emotional strain of providing support (thereby mitigating the risk of professional burnout). This revised framework hopes to also increase the effectiveness of the navigator’s work by addressing implicit bias that inevitably arises from normative temporality – the internalization of prescriptive behavior. I also restructure the “S” variables by moving the Situation variable to the transition assessment stage, and use the other variables (self, support, and strategies) to strategically assess the transition. In Chapter 1, I demonstrate the value of centering support navigators drawing upon the Zulu concept of Ukukhunga, and elaborate on the interventions – expanding transition assessment, providing updated questions, and restructure the 4 S model – in detail through close reading of When Breath Becomes Air as a narrative case study. Chapter 2 discusses the 2015 documentary The Hunting Ground to shed light on the balance that navigators in Higher Education must strike between expressing solidarity and resisting their exploitation within neoliberal academic institutions. Finally, Chapter 3 takes a deconstructionist approach to addressing how professionalization and medical knowledge is determined by the economic substructure by analyzing the play Next to Normal and transitions in healthcare. Through engaging with the thesis, support navigators will develop comprehensive strategies to provide support and mitigate the risk of burnout.