A discussion of future time perspective

A growing area of research in educational psychology is future time perspective and its relationship to desired educational outcomes. This article discusses and critiques five reviews of current research on future time perspective. Key questions addressed are when do individuals begin to articulate a future, how far into the future does this articulation extend, what is the nature of the future that individuals articulate for themselves, what is the relationship between future time perspective and other important psychological processes such as motivation and self-regulation, what is the relationship of future time perspective to gender, culture, and socioeconomic status, and how does future time perspective change over time as individuals grow and develop intellectually and socially? These key questions are fundamental to understanding the relevance and usefulness of future time perspective for interpreting and explaining variations in educational achievement across diverse group of learners internationally.