Making Futures is part of the broader study, Youth Identity and Educational Change in Australia Since 1950: Digital Archiving, Re-using Qualitative Data and Histories of the Present, funded by the ARC [Project code: FT110100646] (2014–2018). Led by Professor Julie McLeod at University of Melbourne, the project is a qualitative study of young people’s journeys through the senior years of secondary schooling and into the world beyond, it explores how young people navigate their educational, social and familial worlds, and imagine and work toward their futures.
The project seeks to gain insights into perceptions of gender relations and perspectives on diverse forms of social issues and differences. It takes a cross-generational and comparative approach: comparing these young people’s perspectives with their parents’ recollections of their own educational experiences, as well as with those of an earlier generation in a similar study.
Making Futures was conceived and designed as a born digital study, taking on elements of ‘live research’. There are two aspects to this; digital archiving of research materials for future use and online documentation, creation and sharing of research. At the conclusion of the project, the research data will be digitally archived and deposited the SOCEY Repository, for future use by researchers, with appropriate ethical, access and storage protocols in place. Further information about the project and its methodologies can be found on the Making Futures website.
Image: Adelaide High School, 1945 (detail). Photographer unknown_SA History Network, GN08780 via Flickr