Projects

Source: ARC

This study, funded by the ARC for five years, represents the next phase of the Centre's longitudinal research program that was initiated with the Life-Patterns study. In this phase, a new cohort of young people in Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory who were aged 16 years in 2005 has been established. In the final years of their schooling, many are already making significant decisions about education and seeking a balance with other aspects of their lives. The study will document their tragectories, decisions and choices to the age of 20 years.

This project follows a similar design to the Life-Patterns study: a mixed method involving annual surveys with a representative sample (3,000 people) and interveiws with a sub-sample (50 people). The project also icludes a continuation of the original Life-Patterns study witha more qualitiative focus. This means that the original Life-Patterns study will be extended to cover a period of 19 years after the participants left secondary school.

Lesley Andres from the Faculty of Education at the University of British Colombia is a co-investigator with Johanna Wyn on this phase of the project, enabling the project to incorporate a comparative element with Andres' Paths on Life's Way study of young people in Ontario, Canada. The project team includes Peter Dwyer, Debra Tyler, Dan Woodman, Graeme Smith and Helen Stokes.

A report summarising the findingsd of the Life-Patterns study from 1996 to 2004 was published in 2005: Dwyer, P., Smith, G. D., and Wyn, J. (2005) Immigrants in Time: Life-Patterns 2004.

Contact: Johanna Wyn and Debra Tyler

Contact: d.tyler@edfac.unimelb.edu.au