Familie und Familienalltag als Bildungsherausforderung

Against the background of a growing diversity and fluidity of family life in modern western societies, the arrangement of everyday family life has become quite demanding for individuals and families. The reflection of individual notions of family as well as the development of concepts of a fulfilling everyday family life has become a recurrent challenge throughout the life course, particularly relevant during transitions in family life (e. g. the transition to parenthood, the reentry of the main caregiver into the labor market, or the transition into post couple parenthood after separation or divorce). Although family theory recently developed the concept of ‘doing family’ to highlight the need to maintain and arrange family life day after day, there is little knowledge on how individuals develop family concepts and how these concepts are adopted to changing life circumstances. In this article we present a research approach which allows to empirically study the reflection and development of family concepts and to work out family concept-related processes of learning and ‘Bildung’. We will illustrate our theoretical and methodological considerations by presenting results from a case study that is part of an ongoing longitudinal study.