Abstract
What gives individuals’ lives meaning is one of the bigger questions confronted by community members? Making sense of our lives and determining what it is that provides us with direction, strength, or commitment is no simple task and even more so in western consumerist societies where so many experiences appear accessible. Finding ways to elicit thoughtful responses from research participants, has led to varied approaches to this increasingly rich research area. An encouraging method is to use digital photography to extract information on what it is that captures participants’ ‘mind's eye’ when reflecting on meaning in their lives. In this article, a pilot study using a combination of digital photography and descriptive narratives was established to explore the thoughts of 174 year seven students in a private West Australian school on what provided their lives with meaning both in school and outside of school. The photos and narratives were explored for themes and while many categories were identified, it was apparent that relationships were the strongest source of meaning in their lives.
Highlights
In 2009, the TV show Australian story, explored the story of paper plane throwing champion Dylan Parker; the episode was entitled The meaning of life (Chesire, 2009)
It may seem fanciful to imagine that young adolescents have a clearly defined purpose in their lives, but the research method employed in the present study allowed these students to provide deeply personal and reflective material that revealed clarity around what provided meaning in their lives and why this was the case
What do the findings from the present study reveal about the young people whom agreed to participate in the present study? The students reflected earnestly on what sustains their lives in their first year of secondary school and this communicated an emerging view
Summary
In 2009, the TV show Australian story, explored the story of paper plane throwing champion Dylan Parker; the episode was entitled The meaning of life (Chesire, 2009). Csıkszentmihalyi (1990) would describe Dylan’s discovery as finding flow; those things that challenge and engage you, that make you persevere at a level where skill mastery is possible, that you grow to love and that give you strength and direction. Discovering these things should make perfect sense for schools in their role of developing successful young people; surely those things that provide individuals with meaning in their lives would be noticed and nurtured! In the pilot study reported here Steger, Shim, Rush, Brueske, Shin and Merriman’s (2013) auto-photographical technique was utilized (Steger, personal communication) with 174 Year 7 students, to determine what provided meaning in life for them both inside and outside school
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