Opportunity and Uncertainty : Life Course Experiences of the Class of '73

Based on the longest running panel study of its kind in Canada, this book examines events in the lives of a generation of Ontario residents who graduated from grade twelve in 1973. The study recreates the world of the early 1970s in which these high school students faced the future. It recounts their educational and occupational experiences in the late 1970s, follows their vocational and career pathways during the subsequent decade, and searches for patterns in their personal and family lives through the late 1980s and early 1990s. By painting a portrait of a little-known cohort, this interdisciplinary project provides a wealth of information about the links between schooling and employment in a time of economic instability and addresses the different ways in which women and men attempt to reconcile familial and occupational demands. The study employs life course theory, which explores the dynamic relationship between the individual and the social order. Structural forces such as social class, gender, ethnicity, and race played an unmistakable role in the lives of the Class of '73. So, too, did human agency. Using survey research, historical documentation, in-depth interviews, and personal biographies, the authors seek to explain one generation's emergence from adolescence into adulthood in an era characterised by both opportunity and uncertainty. Contents 5 Foreword 7 Acknowledgments 11 Introducing the Class of '73 13 1. Navigating the Life Course: School-to-Work Transitions in the 1990s 24 2. Setting the Stage: The Past and the Future 39 3. Educational Pathways 59 4. The World of Employment 95 5. Social, Career, and Geographic Mobility 130 6. The Experiences of First-Generation Canadians 171 7. Family Life 201 8. Constructing the Life Course: Five Biographies 232 9. Conclusion 264 APPENDIX A. Sample Attrition over the Six Phases of the Class of 73 Study 273 APPENDIX B. Class of '73 Project 289 Notes 293 References 307 Index 331 "Based on the longest-running survey of its kind in Canada, this book examines events in the lives of a generation of Ontario residents who graduated from grade twelve in 1973. The study recreates the world of the early 1970s in which these high school students faced the future. It recounts their educational and occupational experiences in the late 1970s, follows their vocational and career pathways during the subsequent decade, and searches for patterns in their personal and family lives through the late 1980s and early 1990s."--Résumé de l'éditeur "Based on the longest-running survey of its kind in Canada, this book examines events in the lives of a generation of Ontario residents who graduated from grade twelve in 1973. The study recreates the world of the early 1970s in which these high school students faced the future. It recounts their educational and occupational experiences in the late 1970s, follows their vocational and career pathways during the subsequent decade, and searches for patterns in their personal and family lives through the late 1980s and early 1990s."--BOOK JACKET. A study of Ontario residents who graduated from grade twelve in 1973. With the era in context, it recounts their educational and occupational experiences. It follows their vocational and career pathways and looks at links between schooling and employment in a time of economic instability. Based on the longest-running survey of its kind in Canada, this book examines events in the lives of a generation of Ontario residents who graduated from grade 12 in 1973 and recreates the world in which these high school students faced the future.