A research report from an HEA-funded study at Leeds Metropolitan University.
Pedagogical strategies in the UK aim to equip students with the capacity to reflect and plan for their future. Our results show however that whilst some students are able to concretely relate their future possible selves to present actions others are only able to describe their future possible selves in the most general terms and are unable to connect these futures with present actions. The reasons for these differences appear complex and do not appear to be related in any simple way to race gender or class.
We found that further and higher education institutions heavily influence the development of possible selves with teachers advisors and mentors not only sources of possible selves but also a context for their elaboration. Concrete pedagogical interventions and in particular examples or experiences of work place settings also seem to have a positive impact. Our results have been presented as a series of conference papers and presentations as well as a short booklet which explores the concept of future 'possible selves' suitable for integration into PDP elements of the social sciences curricula.
