Imagining One’s Future: Bulgarian Students’ Horizons and Aspirations
Imagining One’s Future: Bulgarian Students’ Horizons and Aspirations

Summary/Abstract: This article deals with the topic of Bulgarian students’ aspirations and motivation, and their ideas about their path to success in life and work. Based on an analysis of open-ended questions from a survey conducted among students in grades 8 and 11 in four municipalities in Bulgaria, major differences in young people’s future orientation are outlined. The main dividing lines in the future plans of students from different types of schools are identified. The differences in students’ dreams and intentions are contextualized within research on aspirations understood as capacities and as bound to the social environment, not as strictly individual ideas and desires. The article also comments on the risks involved in interpreting differences in styles and horizons of dreams, which are related to the ‘cruel optimism’ of efforts to overcome the low aspirations and weak motivation of underprivileged social groups.

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