Abstract
The notion that there is a crisis of identity formation in the young people of Western Europe and North America has attracted a great deal of attention and speculation from academics, politicians and journalists. Relatively absent from the debate have been the voices of key professionals - head teachers in schools, local authority advisers with remits in personal and social developments, curriculum agency officers and teacher educators. A series of intensive semi-structured interviews with 22 of these informed observers, working across Scotland, produced data that suggests considerable diversity of opinion but, critically, a more relaxed view of the current situation. Few respondents perceived a crisis as such, locating problems in a minority of young people from problematic backgrounds. Most identified areas of concern with regard to the effectiveness of curricula aimed at personal and social development but in many cases these may have reflected the professional standpoints or interests of interviewees rather than any more widely accepted problem.