York University researchers have captured half a century of Canadian life in a landmark study that began in Ontario classrooms and now spans generations.
Culminating in a new book titled The Story of a Generation, the research marks the longest-running Canadian generational study of its kind, following nearly 50 years in the lives of a cohort of high school students who graduated in 1973.
The project originated with Paul Anisef, professor emeritus at York’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies who began with a survey of high school students to help the Ontario Ministry of Colleges and Universities understand and project post-secondary enrolment.
“I didn’t have in my mind at all that this would become a long-standing longitudinal study,” says Anisef. “It started as a ministry-sponsored survey of high school students, and one thing led to another.”
Encouraged by colleagues after the initial survey, Anisef returned repeatedly to the same group of students – just under 2,500 members of the class of 1973 – surveying and interviewing them in seven waves, from adolescence through midlife and into their early to mid-'60s.
The final phase, conducted between 2019 and 2021, captured their reflections as many approached retirement, offering a rare, lifespan perspective on Canadians.
The newly released book is co-authored along with York Faculty of Education professors Paul Axelrod and Carl James, as well as York PhD student Erika McDonald, and includes contributions from Wolfgang Lehmann, Karen Robson and Erica Fae Thomson. It’s a follow-up to an earlier volume, Opportunity and Uncertainty: Life Course Experiences of the Class of ’73 (2000).
Axelrod, professor emeritus and former dean of education at York, helped provide historical context in the study and notes how unusual the project is.
“What makes this study so unique is that it follows ordinary Canadians over more than 50 years,” he says. “Very few research projects and very few researchers are able to stay committed long enough to see an entire life course unfold.”
Born mainly in 1955 and 1956, these late baby boomers experienced sweeping economic, technological and social change, including the expansion of higher education, women’s growing participation in the labour force, immigration-driven diversification and the digital revolution.
The Story of a Generation blends large-scale survey data with in-depth interviews and portrait chapters to produce a textured account of how education, work, family and well-being intersect.
Anisef says the research team was fascinated by “the myriad pathways that people take in their lives,” and by how historical context and personal circumstances shape key decisions.
One of the book’s central insights is the dynamic relationship between social structure and individual agency. Early in life, factors such as parents’ education, social class, gender, region and immigration status strongly influenced access to post-secondary education and occupational opportunities. Urban youth, especially in Toronto, were more likely to attend university, whereas rural youth often faced more constrained options.
Over time, however, those constraints shifted.
“It’s a kind of natural experiment – you’re not controlling factors, but over time you can see what really changes and what begins to matter more in people’s lives,” Anisef says. “Social structural factors were extremely important early on, but as time went on, personal agency, motivation and personality began to assert more influence on what people did with their lives.”
“Social class matters, but it isn’t destiny,” says Axelrod. “Even a single teacher or mentor who recognizes ability and offers encouragement can make a huge difference and help people overcome barriers.”
The book also traces working lives shaped by economic restructuring and rapid technological change, as participants adapted from typewriters to computers, from manual to digital newspaper production and to increasingly automated, centralized workplaces.
“This generation lived through an incredible time of technological transition, and what we found is that most people adapted,” Axelrod says. “They learned on the job, took short courses and kept going, even when the changes felt overwhelming at first.”
Respondents navigated shifting gender roles, dual-earner households, caregiving for aging parents and evolving relationships with community and religion. For many, retirement emerged not as a clean break but as a mix of part-time work, volunteering, caregiving and “encore” careers.
When asked what ultimately mattered most in their lives, participants were strikingly consistent in their answers.
“The answer wasn’t work or career success – it was family and relationships,” Axelrod says.
Anisef does not plan further research with the Class of ’73, but he hopes others will extend the project to younger cohorts. “It would be fascinating to see what patterns we identified in our study persist in later generations,” he says.
With files from Karen Martin-Robbins