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Education in residential care and in school: A social-pedagogical perspective on the educational attainment of young women leaving care
Children and Youth Services Review 34 (2012) 1190–1196
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Children and Youth Services Review journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth
Education in residential care and in school: A social-pedagogical perspective on the educational attainment of young women leaving care Maren Zeller a,⁎, Stefan Köngeter b a b
University of Hildesheim, Germany University of Toronto, Canada
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Available online 3 February 2012 Keywords: Social pedagogy Biographical research Educational attainment Residential care Young women
a b s t r a c t Conducted from a social-pedagogical perspective, this study, which is based on biographical analyses, focuses on the question of how education and learning in a broad sense are connected to the academic education of children and youth in out-of-home care. Two case examples of young women who left residential care in Germany (selected from a sample of fifteen cases) highlight different patterns of biographical learning and different connections between biographical and academic learning. The results emphasize that situations of biographical crisis can clearly be an obstacle to successful school attendance. At the same time, if a biographical learning process has taken place, it is very likely that education will be successfully resumed. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The importance of education for the field of child and youth care is a widely discussed topic in many countries. However, the discourses vary significantly in the ways education is approached and in the kind of problems constructed (Edelman, 1977). In many Englishspeaking countries, there is growing concern about the academic underachievement of children in out-of-home care compared to their same-age peers (cf. e.g. the National Working Group on Foster Care and Education in the US). By contrast, in Germany, the discussion focuses on the question of the extent to which the child and youth care system contributes to the education – in a broad sense – of children and youth (Konsortium Bildungsberichterstattung, 2006). In Germany, the term “education” (“Bildung”) is not restricted to school or university, but encompasses all processes of learning in young people in various locations, settings, and institutions (BMFSFJ (Federal Ministry of Family Affairs Senior Citizens Women and Youth), 2005). In particular, social pedagogy, the academic discipline with which child and youth care is closely coupled in Germany, regards child and youth care as an institution that supports young people in both their biographical and academic learning processes. The following study connects these different perspectives and discourses: It starts with a broad, social-pedagogical perspective on education and learning, but goes on to focus on the question of how education and learning in a
⁎ Corresponding author at: University of Hildesheim, Institute of Social Pedagogy and Organizational Studies, c/o Dr. Maren Zeller, Marienburger Platz 22, 31141 Hildesheim, Germany. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Zeller). 0190-7409/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2012.01.047
broad sense are connected to the academic education of children and youth in out-of-home care. 2. Background 2.1. Research on education and care in English-speaking countries In various countries, increasing attention is being paid to the educational attainment of children in out-of-home care. Recent literature reviews from the USA, Canada, and the UK consistently show that children in out-of-home care show less educational progress compared to their same-age peers (Connelly & Chakrabarti, 2008; Snow, 2009; Stone, 2006; Trout, Hagaman, Casey, Reid, & Epstein, 2008). They perform below grade level, consistently range lower than average in different academic areas, and have significantly fewer qualifications than commonly expected for young people in their age group (Connelly & Chakrabarti, 2008; Flynn, Ghazal, Legault, Vandermeulen, & Petrick, 2004; Snow, 2009). Furthermore, studies demonstrate that the academic functioning of young people in care is characterized by a higher rate of absenteeism (Flynn et al., 2004), higher rates of grade repetition (Flynn & Biro, 1998), and more disciplinary actions compared to their peers (Scherr, 2007). These educational problems are caused by the many disruptions in schooling (Snow, 2009), placement instabilities (Smithgall, Gladden, Howard, Goerge, & Courtney, 2004), and the lack of advocacy children in care are experiencing. Studies on the transition of former children in out-of-home care confirm the results regarding educational attainment during care. Young adults leaving care obtain on average lower school-leaving qualifications than their same-age peers (Courtney, Dworsky, Lee, & Raap, 2010; Jackson, Ajayi, & Quigley, 2005; Pecora, Williams, Kessler, O'Brien, & Emerson, 2006).
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2.2. Research approach in Germany: a social-pedagogical perspective on education and learning In contrast to North America, the UK and other European countries, the academic situation of young people in out-of-home care in Germany has scarcely been researched in recent years. This evident lack of research on the educational attainment of children in out-ofhome care is partially due to differences in the disciplinary, epistemological, and theoretical background of research on child and youth care in Germany. Child and youth care in Germany encompasses a broad range of services ranging from day care, to youth work, unemployment services, family counseling, social group work, and residential and foster care. These services are considered one of the core fields of “social pedagogy”. The term “social pedagogy” comprises both the profession and the academic discipline and is only approximately congruent with the term “social work” used in North America and the UK. Education in its broadest sense stands at the center of social pedagogy – which in Germany, is considered a sub-discipline of educational sciences – and “encompasses all elements of living and learning as one unified process of developmental change and growth” (Gharabaghi & Groskleg, 2010). Gertrud Bäumer's often cited definition of social pedagogy as a professional field of action – “education that is neither school nor family” – demonstrates that in Germany, education and learning are not restricted to school. This broad understanding of education and learning starts with the very idea that every kind of learning is rooted in the everyday life of a young person (Grunwald & Thiersch, 2009), in his/her biography (Marotzki, 2006), and in his/her position in social structure (Bernfeld, 1973). Learning therefore takes place in very different environments and at very different locations: in peer groups, in the family, by watching TV, at playgrounds and so on; education is connected to this broad understanding of learning and encompasses all kinds of social practices that are connected to these learning opportunities and are intended to direct this process (BMFSFJ, 2005). Social pedagogy as a discipline, therefore “[has to] examine the social conditions of education and the educative conditions of social life, always under the justified assumption that the forms of society are changeable, that they are subject to development” (Natorp, 1894, p. 86). Against this background, it is not surprising that education has always been connected to child and youth care, but in a very different way than in Anglo-Saxon countries: behavioral problems of children in out-of-home care are for example first and foremost considered efforts by children and youth to cope with social disadvantages or a challenging social environment. This perspective is far from playing down the negative sides of behavioral problems, but it “regards all children, and indeed all human beings, as, on the one hand, in need of educational guidance for the full development of their potential, more explicitly obviously in youth and in crisis situations, and, on the other hand, as capable of always developing themselves further, provided the requisite resources are available” (Lorenz, 2008, p. 636). This different disciplinary and theoretical approach to out-ofhome care has several consequences, of which we would like to mention three: Firstly, social pedagogues in Germany are trained in education and educational sciences. A large part of their academic training deals with issues such as how young people learn, how to shape the social environment so that these young people are encouraged to learn, and how to educate young people (Petrie et al., 2009). Secondly, interventions are designed in such a way that children in care have the possibility of learning to behave in a different way and of acquiring skills that enable them to solve the social problems they are facing in a different way. Therefore, social pedagogues encourage what is called biographical learning, a kind of learning that takes into account not only certain parts of a young person's life, but also his/her whole biography (Thiersch, 2007). Lastly, research approaches and projects are often focused on the learning and
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education processes taking place in child and youth care. There are only a few large-scale quantitative studies on out-of-home care, but a broad range of qualitative research projects that tend to analyze particularly the processes of learning and education in care facilities (Gabriel, Keller, & Studer, 2007). 2.3. German research on education and care This fact leads to the aforementioned lack of knowledge about the academic status and achievement of children in out-of-home care. The most comprehensive studies on this topic are already several years old and do not closely examine the academic situation (Bürger, 1990; JULE, 1998; Schmidt et al., 2002). However, current statistical data can give indications on the school attendance of young people in and after care. This data suggests that just under a third of young adults receiving residential welfare care are, at the time the care ends, neither attending a school, nor receiving vocational training or career-related support (Köngeter, Schröer, & Zeller, 2008). These high figures, particularly among the 15- to 18-yearolds, show that in Germany, the number of early school leavers and school refusers is higher among young people in care compared to their same-age peers. While studies on the relationship between out-of-home care and educational attainment are rare, there is a considerable amount of research focusing on the educational processes taking place both in care and in school. Only recently, a study financed by the German federal government involving 378 participants in different fields of child and youth care (residential care, education in a day group, and socio-educational support of families) analyzed the importance of schooling for the progress of children in care. This study demonstrates that better grades in school are closely connected with the well-being of children in care, and that this higher school attainment is connected with a trusting relationship between the young person and adults in care facilities and young people's perception of their ability to participate in the care planning process (Albus et al., 2010). Besides this study, biographical analyses have become particularly popular in research on child and youth care (among the more recent studies are: Finkel, 2004; Hamberger, 2008; Rätz-Heinisch, 2005). This is due to the widespread assumption in the field of social pedagogy in Germany that child and youth care should orient itself toward the subjective endowment of life with meaning and the biographical learning of young people in care. Biographical learning means the acquisition of different coping strategies to deal with their own social environment. Their social environment encompasses not only their family, peers and community, but also institutional (e.g. school and vocational training) and societal challenges (e.g. social disadvantages, poverty). The aforementioned biographical studies analyze biographical narratives of young people in care and after and show how professionals and organizations in the field of child and youth care influence and shape their biographical learning. 2.4. An integrated research approach to education and learning in school and care A review of research on the relationship between out-of-home care and school in English-speaking countries and Germany reveals not only differences in the amount of knowledge available on this topic, but also in the kind of research conducted and the way this topic is approached by researchers. The social pedagogical tradition in Germany emphasizes learning and education in their broadest sense. This focus leads both to a lack of knowledge about school attainment of children in care and to a variety of research on and knowledge of (biographical) learning processes within an out-of-home care setting and the way to influence these processes. The latter is the reason for the popularity of social pedagogy in various English-speaking countries nowadays (Cameron, Petrie, Wigfall, Kleipoedszus, & Jasper, 2001). This review, however,
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also shows that such a transnational exchange of knowledge must be sensitive to the fact that research and knowledge are integrated in longstanding theoretical and disciplinary pathways that are present in the various countries and influence their research approaches. The research question of the study, which will be presented in the following, takes up the lack of knowledge about school achievement of young people leaving care that is evident in Germany. Nevertheless, the research is not focused on how residential care – as an independent variable – impacts educational achievement, but rather first calls attention to the biography of the young person in care. Secondly, it analyzes the connection between biographical learning and academic learning. Lastly, the study asks how organizations and professionals in the field of residential care facilitate biographical and academic learning processes. 3. Method The current study is based on biographical analyses of young women who have left residential care. Ever since “the biographical turn” (Chamberlayne, Bornat, & Wengraf, 2000), biographical analysis has been a recognized method of qualitative research, which currently seems particularly popular in Germany (Apitzsch & Inowlocki, 2004). Since the study follows the European methodological research tradition, the term “biographical analysis” is used. “Narrative analysis” (Riessman, 2004), a research approach better known in North America, refers to a related methodological procedure. Biographical analysis corresponds with a specific theoretical framework for the meaning of biography (see above). Schütze (2007) combines theoretical assumptions about how individuals construct meaning in their lives drawn from German phenomenology with the symbolic interactionism and the analytic procedures of Strauss (1987) as a means of researching social processes and social change. Thus, biographical analysis specifically enables us to study processes, and in particular processes of suffering as well as learning processes, and therefore matches the research aim of analyzing the connection between learning processes in school and in care.
3.3. Sampling This study follows the guidelines of theoretical sampling as introduced by Glaser and Strauss (1967). Therefore, data collection took place over a period of 14 months. The analysis of the first data led to the decision as to which interviews to conduct next. Overall, there were four phases of data collection in collaboration with six agencies. In order to find contrasting cases, some theoretical selection criteria were determined, such as different regions, different types of agencies, rural and urban areas or migration background. Moreover, the collaborating agencies were asked to find young women with different life stories. During the process of data analysis, the three cases which seemed to contrast most with each other were chosen (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Schütze, 1983).
3.4. Autobiographical interviews The autobiographical interview (Schütze, 1983) was used for data collection. The autobiographical interview makes use of the competence people use in everyday life to communicate with other people about their lives in the form of narratives and calls on participants to report about their life impromptu. Such impromptu stories are meant to give the interview participant the opportunity to present their view of themselves and the world without any prior restrictions set by the researcher. In order to encourage such impromptu stories, the interview conversation starts with an initial question, a so-called stimulus to narrate. For this study, the following stimulus was used: “Then I would like you to remember and to tell your life story … how little by little things fell into place…”. Two types of inquiries follow the initial narrative. With the help of so-called “immanent” inquiries, the informant is asked to elaborate on some events. In contrast, “exmanent” inquiries are used to prompt the informant to sum up and to reflect upon his/her own life and biography (Jovchelovitch & Bauer, 2000). The length of the participants' impromptu stories varied between 3 min and 2 h.
3.1. Recruitment of participants Autobiographical interviews were conducted with young women for data collection. Under the German Data Protection Act, the only way to contact care leavers is through the agencies that provided residential care. For this study, child and youth care agencies from different provinces (Bundesländer) and counties (Landkreise/Städte) were asked to contact ex-clients for permission to provide their current telephone number to the researcher. 3.2. Sample Altogether, fifteen autobiographical interviews were conducted. Since the aim was to reconstruct learning processes, the following selection criterion was applied: the client must have left the residential group home and the period of compulsory school attendance must have ended at least one year before the interview. Furthermore, the study focused on young women. Gender-specific studies have a longstanding tradition in research on child and youth welfare in Germany (Finkel, 2004; Hartwig, 1992; Kieper, 1980), since it is well known that statistics point out gender-specific differences: for instance, girls are on average older than boys when accessing the child and youth welfare system and they more often report the abuse or neglect they suffer to the Children's Aid Society themselves (Bronner & Behnisch, 2007). Nevertheless, a qualitative sample cannot draw conclusions about young women in general. Rather, the individual case studies make it possible to point out differences within the same gender.
3.5. Data analysis For data analysis, all interviews were recorded and transcribed. It is assumed that during the impromptu narrative, the informants order their experiences in a certain way. It is therefore interesting to proceed sequentially at the analysis stage. Furthermore, it is crucial that both the content (the what) and the structure (the how) of the narrative are taken into account. Specifically, in the analysis, the steps suggested by Schütze (1983); namely, collection of first impressions, analysis of objective data, formal text analysis, sequential analysis, and analytical abstraction were performed first. Additional steps were borrowed from the paradigm of grounded theory and correspond with common practice in qualitative social research: (a) finding contrasting comparisons; (b) constructing a theoretical model (Glaser & Strauss, 1967).
4. Results Given its focus on biographical and academic learning processes, this study emphasizes the importance of case analyses and comparisons. For a presentation of results, it is therefore necessary to first highlight the structure of the particular learning processes before working out essential aspects by comparing the cases. Two maximally contrasting cases are at the core of the presentation: Caroline and Marlene. The analysis of these two cases reveals important links between academic achievements and biographical learning structures.
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4.1. Caroline's case When Caroline was 16 years old, she left her family because of sexual abuse by her father and maltreatment by her mother. She entered the child and youth welfare system and was placed in a residential group home for girls. There, she met her social worker Sylvia, with whom she established a very good relationship. Sylvia became a significant other (Mead, 1934; Owens, 2007), a person whom she trusted and who gave her advice on how to live her life. But at the same time, the struggles with her family during her transition to the residential group home led to disruptions in her academic career. Furthermore, Caroline had problems getting along with the other girls in the residential group home. After a quarrel with the girls, she decided to move to another, far away town. There, she resumed her vocational training as a kindergarten teacher, but found it even harder to cope with her problems as she had no one to rely on and she especially missed Sylvia. Caroline felt more and more depressed until a doctor sent her to a psychiatric hospital. She stayed there for a few weeks and in that time, realized that she couldn't change her life by running away. She reflected that she couldn't live without social relationships and that she had to come to terms with her past before she could move on to the future. Realizing these issues, she steered her life in another direction. She went to court to charge her father with the abuse. She went back to vocational training, graduated as a kindergarten teacher and moved back close to the town where she had lived during the time she stayed at the residential group home. In terms of formal learning and education, Caroline's experience was that in general, she had the ability to be a successful student, but in particular, there were phases in her life when she was not successful or even skipped school. Caroline explains this pattern as follows: “I know I can learn, but if my mind is busy coping with problems, studying in school doesn't work at all”. During her stay at the residential group home, she therefore regarded school as a relatively unimportant issue that she was hardly willing to discuss with Sylvia, although Sylvia always told her that she considered school important. In Caroline's case, a biographical learning process can be outlined. It starts when she talks to Sylvia about her life and seeks her advice. Particularly, her stay at the clinic seems like a time-out in which she realized that she could not reinvent herself, but had to re-evaluate the past to effect a lasting change in her life. Thus, Caroline's case demonstrates that reflection is one crucial aspect of a biographical learning process. A second important factor is the initiative to change her attitude towards her family and to transform the way she acts towards them, e.g. by charging her father with the abuse. By moving on from her experiences with her family, she becomes able to develop plans for her future within new relationships (Sylvia, boyfriend, friends), beyond family relationships. Furthermore, the case suggests the existence of a close link between biographical crisis and academic success: disruptions in school attendance took place after entering the residential group home. However, the biographical analysis shows that not the residential group home, but the incomplete biographical learning process led to her flight to another town and to the discontinuation of her vocational training. After the outlined biographical learning process took place, school attendance and achievement were not an issue anymore. 4.2. Marlene's case As far as Marlene can remember, everyday life in her family has been characterized by a strict upbringing. The reconstruction of Marlene's case reveals a very complex family pattern in the areas of love, respect and affection: she experienced that (a) her parents only loved her if her (physical) appearance and her performance at school were perfect; (b) to love meant to obey her parents, who sought to determine every single step in her life and did not allow her any privacy;
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(c) she could never be sure of her parents' love. In addition, Marlene currently suspects that she was abused within her family, but cannot recall any specific facts. To fulfill the demands of the existing family pattern, Marlene became first anorexic and later bulimic at the age of eleven. As she grew older, she tried to escape her parents' total control and started dating her boyfriend, by whom she became pregnant at the age of fifteen. After she told her mother about the pregnancy, she was forced to have a clandestine abortion to protect the family's reputation. This she recalls as the worst situation in her lifetime. After the abortion, Marlene made several attempts to leave her family and finally entered the child and youth welfare system. A bachelor apartment was rented for her and she received regular support from Susan, her social worker. During the following two years, on the one hand, Marlene established a very good relationship with Susan. On the other hand, this relationship turned out to be rather ambivalent because Marlene drew Susan into relationship patterns which had similarities to her family's pattern of love and respect, and Susan was not able to reflect on her involvement. Marlene also tried different therapies, but still describes herself as dangerously bulimic. After leaving her family, Marlene entered two relationships with different men, whom she loves, as she puts it, although neither of them treats her well. In both relationships, Marlene exposes herself to exploitation and dependency, which hinders her from developing plans for her future life. In terms of formal learning and education, Marlene initially was a successful student, as her parents expected her to be. In her efforts to gain the love of her parents, which could (only) be achieved by being a perfect child, she worked hard at school. However, as the family situation became more and more difficult, she often skipped school. After entering the child and youth welfare system, Marlene tried to catch up in school again for a time, but was not as successful anymore. Therefore, she decided to leave school after the period of compulsory school attendance and to start a three-year vocational training as an office clerk. At the male-dominated training site, she was drawn into a situation of exploitation and at risk of being abused. She tries to escape this situation and dreams of starting a business on her own with one of her boyfriends, although she is officially still a trainee at the office. In Marlene's case, the biographical learning process falters. Although Marlene herself mentions some behavioral changes in her everyday life, various areas of her life seem to mirror her family's emotional and behavioral patterns. Neither with Susan's help nor with the therapist's has she been able to reflect on the abuse that took place. Both facts result in the reproduction of patterns of abuse in her relationships with men, both in her private life and in her vocational training. They also hinder Marlene from developing plans for her future without reinforcing her dependency on abusive men.
4.3. Comparison of cases Caroline and Marlene are two maximally contrasting cases with respect to their pattern of biographical learning. While the analysis of Caroline's narrative reveals a change in her way of acting, Marlene's narrative shows a repeated involvement in questionable, if not abusive relationships. Even though some changes in this kind of involvement and efforts to escape this circle of reproduction – e.g. engaging in therapies, developing business plans – can be pointed out, she is still not aware of the fact that some of the men she is in contact with use her dependency on them. By contrast, Caroline ceases her dominant action pattern of flight and starts confronting herself and her parents with the harm she has suffered. This is also shown by the analysis of how her narrative pattern is changing. Before talking about her time in the psychiatric hospital, she avoided referring to her parents as actors, whereas her later accounts mentioning her father and mother clearly name these persons and their responsibilities.
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The two analyses of the biographical learning processes reveal the different meaning of academic achievement for these young women. For Caroline, school is not strongly connected with academic success, it is a place where she builds friendships with schoolmates and experiences integration into her peer group. Her academic career appears to mirror her biographical situation: crises in her biography and her social environment almost immediately lead to a deterioration of her academic performance or even to disruptions of it. Taking up her vocational training after the watershed that the therapeutic treatment represents is a way of gaining control of her life. For Marlene, however, academic success is associated with the rigorous educational climate prevailing in her family. She does not regard academic achievement as a resource potentially leading to independence and continues her involvement in dependent relationships and her career is even linked to men who seem to use her. Furthermore, the comparison shows the different connections between biographical and academic learning processes. In both cases, entering the child and youth care system did not mean the end of the biographical crisis, but, at that point, the experience of another “traumatic life event” (Filipp, 1995; Lambers, 1996). On the contrary, as the case of Caroline reveals, it can mean the beginning of a biographical learning process that can even lead to a disruption of the academic career. Only after provisional completion of the biographical learning process, initiated by the residential care facility and the social pedagogue, and enhanced by her stay in the psychiatric hospital, did Caroline have the ability to resume her vocational training. By contrast, Marlene, stuck in her biographical learning process, was not able to resume her formerly successful academic career. For her, academic and now vocational success is not a means to become independent, but rather still a means to gain recognition from others. Therefore, both cases reveal the importance of biographical learning for academic advancement, though with different conclusions. On the other hand, this result confirms the fact introduced in research on school culture that the more students have on their minds, the less they can get involved in school and studying (Kramer, 2002). Both cases shed light on the fact that young people leaving care are delayed in their academic careers compared to their same-age peers. As a result, biographical crises can prolong the time spent in education in school and/or training. The respective roles of the social pedagogues involved in the two cases differ considerably. Sylvia, a significant other for Caroline, supported her during the complicated learning process and continued the relationship even after Caroline had left the residential group home. It was also Sylvia who reminded Caroline of the importance of school attainment. Susan, Marlene's social pedagogue, also developed a close relationship with her as a significant other. But this relationship was strongly influenced by the difficulties Marlene was facing with her family. Susan's strong involvement in these family struggles hindered her from accompanying a learning process in Marlene. This partiality also carried weight in the decision as to whether Marlene should continue high school or start vocational training. The decision against high school was one against the father's wishes, but not favorable to Marlene's plans for the future. Consequently, on the one hand, the case analysis indicates the importance of significant others in initiating and accompanying learning processes and school attainment. On the other hand, becoming a significant other is not a sufficient factor for a successful outcome, as Marlene's case shows. Finally, the biographical analysis in both cases, but also in other cases in the sample, shows the marginal role of teachers and schools with respect to both biographical learning and decisions on the academic careers of young people in care. On the contrary, Caroline even experienced discrimination by a teacher for living in a residential care facility. This leads to questions about the school system's degree of sensitivity to this kind of issue, which social pedagogues often complain is not high enough (Zeller, 2007).
5. Discussion 5.1. Connection between biographical learning and academic attainment The qualitative study we introduced explored the connection between biographical learning and academic attainment. In short, the results of the study emphasize that situations of biographical crisis can clearly be an obstacle to successful school attendance. At the same time, if a biographical learning process has taken place, it is very likely that education will be successfully resumed. Therefore, the findings of this study can be complemented with the results drawn from the other most recent German study (Albus et al., 2010), which shows that better grades in school are closely connected with the well-being of children in care. In short, the connection can be described as follows: biographical crises inhibit academic attainment, and vice versa: academic attainment increases well-being. This connection between biographical learning processes and academic attainment suggests several consequences, of which we would like to mention three: Firstly, the advantages of a broader approach to education and learning should be taken into consideration in both research and practice. As a research perspective, this approach promises more insights into educational processes, both in care and in school. In social work practice, this involves changing professional conducts and the shape interventions take. Supporting biographical learning would then be the main aim of social pedagogy-inspired social work from an educational point of view. Secondly, the awareness of the connection between biographical learning and learning in school leads to the insight that academic success in children in care is often quite fragile: periods of stability and success could be interrupted by biographical crises. Therefore, a specific theoretical perspective is needed when discussing the encouragement of learning processes in general. At no point – including after implementing a specific measure – should it be assumed that school attainment of children in care is linear. This means that social workers should continuously reflect on the dynamics that arise between the demands of school and the demands of the biographical situation of the young person in care. Thirdly, as these interruptions occur on a regular basis in the case of children in care, it is important to extend the formal and informal support beyond the age of eighteen. Various research studies have shown that young people are reaching adulthood later and later nowadays (Arnett, 2007). Young adults now require more time to become autonomous in terms of income, housing, partnership and so on. Care leavers, however, are expected to cope with this transition to adulthood much faster than their peers, with less support and professional qualifications. 5.2. Strengths and limitations of the study The study has several strengths and limitations, which are important to recognize. The in-depth analysis of cases reveals the interaction between biographical and academic learning in young women in care. Although biographical analyses consider both the how and the what of biographical narratives, and therefore are able to present more than the mere opinions of care leavers, the study has no access to the actual course of actions. Its retrospective character is one important limitation that should be taken into account. Although in some cases, the interactions between biography and academic career are somewhat different or more complex, the analyses reveal the importance of these interaction processes. Another set of strengths and limitations is linked to the sampling process. Selecting only young women as interview partners takes into account research on gender differences in biographical learning processes (e.g. Felden, 2003). By sampling young women based on their contrasting biographies, it becomes possible to show variances in the connection between biographical and academic learning within
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the biographies of young women. However, further biographical analyses are needed for boys in out-of-home care and young men who have left care. Finally, this paper only presented two cases. However, this article is based on exhaustive research on biographical learning processes in young women leaving care (Zeller, 2012, forthcoming). In this context, it is important to recognize that qualitative and quantitative studies differ in their strategies of generalization of results. Especially biographical research aims at contrasting cases in such a way that these cases exhaustively represent the infinite variety of possible cases. The two cases presented in this article were selected to demonstrate the starkest possible contrasts between biographical learning processes in child and youth care among young women. These contrasting cases could also reveal maximally different connections between biographical and academic learning processes. However, this article presents only the most important aspects of the contrasts that could be found in the study. Moreover, qualitative exhaustivity is no substitute for quantitative representativity. Further quantitative research on the basis of these qualitative findings is therefore advisable. 5.3. Implications for practice The study demonstrates the need for biographical sensitivity when working with children in care and young care leavers, given that improvements in academic achievements are closely connected with biographical learning processes. Especially with children in out-of-home care, it is important to support their biographical learning efforts in order to stabilize their school attendance and their educational outcomes. It is therefore important for professionals in child and youth care facilities to develop a biographical sensitivity and methods to support biographical learning processes in children and youth (e.g. Homfeldt, 2004). In the field of social pedagogy in Germany, the developments in biographical research have been widely adopted by practitioners and child and youth care facilities. The term “biographical work” (Kraul & Marotzki, 2002) refers to the effort to make use of methodological advancements in research and to support the reflection of young people in care on their biography. Biographical work is a collaborative effort by the young people in care and the practitioner, who has an honest interest in the biography of the individual young person. In order to learn more about the biography of a client and to start the biographical work, a practitioner uses special conversation techniques and creates settings that enable children and youth in care to tell their personal life story (or parts of it) in detail (Lattschar & Wiemann, 2007; Ryan & Walker, 2007). Autobiographical interviews are particularly suited to initiate such a process, but life books are also a popular tool (e.g. Backhaus, 1994). Furthermore, it is important for practitioners to support reflective biographical work by promoting opportunities to reflect in everyday counseling situations. The case analyses reveal the importance of connecting biographical learning with decisions that have to be made in everyday life. However, biographical learning can take place alongside and in interaction with formal academic learning. There are many ways in which social pedagogues can support the young people's formal academic career, such as by supervising homework, negotiating with teachers in conflict situations, hiring tutors, etc. Regardless of the supportive instruments chosen, it seems very helpful that social pedagogues tell the young people that they consider school important and set an example for them in this regard. Finally, it is important for the practitioner to reflect on the connections between biographical learning processes and academic achievement. This is indispensable, not only given the worrying educational outcomes of children in care, but also from a biographical point of view: Since the findings of Albus et al. (2010) demonstrate the impact
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of academic success on the well-being of children in care, we can assume that academic achievements can also play an important role in biographical learning processes. References Albus, S., Greschke, H., Klingler, B., Messmer, H., Micheel, H. -G., Otto, H. -U., & Polutta, A. (2010). Wirkungsorientierte Jugendhilfe. Münster: ISA. Apitzsch, U., & Inowlocki, L. (2004). Biographical analysis. A ‘German’ school? In P. Chamberlayne, J. Bornat, & T. Wengraf (Eds.), Comparative issues and examples. The turn to biographical methods in social science. (pp. 53–70) London and New York: Routledge. Arnett, J. J. (2007). Afterword: Aging out of care — Toward realizing the possibilities of emerging adulthood. New Directions for Youth Development(113), 151–161. Backhaus, K. A. (1994). Life books: Tool for working with children in placement. Social Work, 29(6), 551–554. Bernfeld, S. (1973). Sisyphus; or, the limits of education. Translated by Frederic Lilge. Foreword by Anna Freud. 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Lebenswelten “verwahrloster” Mädchen: autobiographische Berichte und ihre Interpretation. München: Juventa. Köngeter, S., Schröer, W., & Zeller, M. (2008). Germany. In E. R. Munro, & M. Stein (Eds.), Young people's transitions from care to adulthood. International research and practice book. (pp. 63–77) London: Jessica Kingsley Publications. Konsortium Bildungsberichterstattung (Ed.). (2006). Bildung in Deutschland: Ein indikatorengestützter Bericht mit einer Analyse zu Bildung und Migration. Bertelsmann: Bielefeld. Kramer, R. -T. (2002). Schulkultur und Schülerbiographien: das “schulbiographische Passungsverhältnis”. Opladen: Leske + Budrich. Kraul, M., & Marotzki, W. (Eds.). (2002). Biographische Arbeit. Opladen: Leske + Budrich. Lambers, H. (1996). Heimerziehung als kritisches Lebensereignis. Münster: Votum.
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Lattschar, B., & Wiemann, I. (2007). Mädchen und Jungen entdecken ihre Geschichte: Grundlagen und Praxis der Biografiearbeit. Juventa: Weinheim. Lorenz, W. (2008). Paradigms and politics: Understanding methods paradigms in an historical context: The case of social pedagogy. British Journal of Social Work, 38, 625–644. Marotzki, W. (2006). Bildungstheorie und Allgemeine Biographieforschung. In H. -H. Krüger, & Dres (Eds.), Handbuch erziehungswissenschaftliche Biographieforschung (pp. 59–70). (2. ed). Wiesbaden: VS. Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self, and society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Natorp, P. (1894). Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der Humanität. Freiburg i. B.: Mohr. Owens, E. (2007). Significant others. Retrieved from. In G. Ritzer (Ed.), The Blackwell encyclopedia of sociology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pubhttp://www.sociologyencyclopedia. com Pecora, P. J., Williams, J., Kessler, R. J., O'Brien, K., & Emerson, J. (2006). Assessing the educational achievements of adults who formerly were placed in family foster care. Child and Family Social Work, 11, 220–231. Petrie, P., Boddy, J., Cameron, C., Heptinstall, E., McQuail, S., Simon, A., & Wigfall, V. (2009). Pedagogy — a holistic, personal approach to work with children and young people, across services — European models for practice, training, education and qualification. London: Thomas Coram Research Unit, University of London. Rätz-Heinisch, R. (2005). Gelingende Jugendhilfe bei “aussichtslosen Fällen”! Biographische Rekonstruktionen von Lebensgeschichten junger Menschen. Würzburg: Ergon. Riessman, C. K. (2004). Narrative analysis. In M. Lewis-Beck, A. Bryman, & T. Liao (Eds.), The sage ecyclopedia of social science research methods (pp. 705–709). Thousand Oaks et al.: Sage Publications. Ryan, T., & Walker, R. (2007). Life story work: A practical guide to helping children understand their past. London: British Association for Adoption and Fostering. Scherr, T. G. (2007). Educational experiences of children in foster care: Meta-analyses of special education, retention and discipline rate. School Psychology International, 28(4), 419–436.
Schmidt, M., Schneider, K., Hohm, E., Pickartz, A., Macsenaere, M., Petermann, F., …, & Knab, E. (2002). Effekte erzieherischer Hilfen und ihre Hintergründe. Berlin: Kohlhammer. Schütze, F. (1983). Biographieforschung und narratives interview. Neue Praxis(3), 283–293. Schütze, F. (2007). Biography analysis on the empirical base of autobiographical narratives. Retrieved Aug. 2, 2011, from. http://www.uni-magdeburg.de/zsm/projekt/ biographical/1/B2.1.pdf Smithgall, C., Gladden, R. M., Howard, E., Goerge, R., & Courtney, M. (2004). Educational experiences of children in out-of-home care Chicago. : Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago. Snow, K. (2009). The case for enhanced educational supports for children in public care: An integrative literature review of the educational pathway of children in care. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 4(4), 300–311. Stone, S. (2006). Child maltreatment, out-of-home placement and academic vulnerability: A fifteen-year review of evidence and future directions. Children and Youth Services Review, 29, 139–161. Strauss, A. L. (1987). Qualitative analysis for social scientists. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. Thiersch, H. (2007). Bildung und Sozialpädagogik. In G. Knapp, & K. Lauermann (Eds.), Schule und Soziale Arbeit (pp. 104–122). Klagenfurt: hermagoras. Trout, A. L., Hagaman, J., Casey, K., Reid, R., & Epstein, M. H. (2008). The academic status of children and youth in out-of-home care: A review of the literature. Children and Youth Services Review, 30, 979–994. Die sozialpädagogische Verantwortung der Schule: Kooperation von Ganztagsschule und Jugendhilfe. Zeller, M. (Ed.). (2007). Baltmannsweiler: Schneider. Zeller, M. (2012). Bildungsprozesse von Mädchen in den Erziehungshilfen. Weinheim: Juventa.
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Children and Youth Services Review journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth
Education in residential care and in school: A social-pedagogical perspective on the educational attainment of young women leaving care Maren Zeller a,⁎, Stefan Köngeter b a b
University of Hildesheim, Germany University of Toronto, Canada
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Available online 3 February 2012 Keywords: Social pedagogy Biographical research Educational attainment Residential care Young women
a b s t r a c t Conducted from a social-pedagogical perspective, this study, which is based on biographical analyses, focuses on the question of how education and learning in a broad sense are connected to the academic education of children and youth in out-of-home care. Two case examples of young women who left residential care in Germany (selected from a sample of fifteen cases) highlight different patterns of biographical learning and different connections between biographical and academic learning. The results emphasize that situations of biographical crisis can clearly be an obstacle to successful school attendance. At the same time, if a biographical learning process has taken place, it is very likely that education will be successfully resumed. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction The importance of education for the field of child and youth care is a widely discussed topic in many countries. However, the discourses vary significantly in the ways education is approached and in the kind of problems constructed (Edelman, 1977). In many Englishspeaking countries, there is growing concern about the academic underachievement of children in out-of-home care compared to their same-age peers (cf. e.g. the National Working Group on Foster Care and Education in the US). By contrast, in Germany, the discussion focuses on the question of the extent to which the child and youth care system contributes to the education – in a broad sense – of children and youth (Konsortium Bildungsberichterstattung, 2006). In Germany, the term “education” (“Bildung”) is not restricted to school or university, but encompasses all processes of learning in young people in various locations, settings, and institutions (BMFSFJ (Federal Ministry of Family Affairs Senior Citizens Women and Youth), 2005). In particular, social pedagogy, the academic discipline with which child and youth care is closely coupled in Germany, regards child and youth care as an institution that supports young people in both their biographical and academic learning processes. The following study connects these different perspectives and discourses: It starts with a broad, social-pedagogical perspective on education and learning, but goes on to focus on the question of how education and learning in a
⁎ Corresponding author at: University of Hildesheim, Institute of Social Pedagogy and Organizational Studies, c/o Dr. Maren Zeller, Marienburger Platz 22, 31141 Hildesheim, Germany. E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Zeller). 0190-7409/$ – see front matter © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2012.01.047
broad sense are connected to the academic education of children and youth in out-of-home care. 2. Background 2.1. Research on education and care in English-speaking countries In various countries, increasing attention is being paid to the educational attainment of children in out-of-home care. Recent literature reviews from the USA, Canada, and the UK consistently show that children in out-of-home care show less educational progress compared to their same-age peers (Connelly & Chakrabarti, 2008; Snow, 2009; Stone, 2006; Trout, Hagaman, Casey, Reid, & Epstein, 2008). They perform below grade level, consistently range lower than average in different academic areas, and have significantly fewer qualifications than commonly expected for young people in their age group (Connelly & Chakrabarti, 2008; Flynn, Ghazal, Legault, Vandermeulen, & Petrick, 2004; Snow, 2009). Furthermore, studies demonstrate that the academic functioning of young people in care is characterized by a higher rate of absenteeism (Flynn et al., 2004), higher rates of grade repetition (Flynn & Biro, 1998), and more disciplinary actions compared to their peers (Scherr, 2007). These educational problems are caused by the many disruptions in schooling (Snow, 2009), placement instabilities (Smithgall, Gladden, Howard, Goerge, & Courtney, 2004), and the lack of advocacy children in care are experiencing. Studies on the transition of former children in out-of-home care confirm the results regarding educational attainment during care. Young adults leaving care obtain on average lower school-leaving qualifications than their same-age peers (Courtney, Dworsky, Lee, & Raap, 2010; Jackson, Ajayi, & Quigley, 2005; Pecora, Williams, Kessler, O'Brien, & Emerson, 2006).
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2.2. Research approach in Germany: a social-pedagogical perspective on education and learning In contrast to North America, the UK and other European countries, the academic situation of young people in out-of-home care in Germany has scarcely been researched in recent years. This evident lack of research on the educational attainment of children in out-ofhome care is partially due to differences in the disciplinary, epistemological, and theoretical background of research on child and youth care in Germany. Child and youth care in Germany encompasses a broad range of services ranging from day care, to youth work, unemployment services, family counseling, social group work, and residential and foster care. These services are considered one of the core fields of “social pedagogy”. The term “social pedagogy” comprises both the profession and the academic discipline and is only approximately congruent with the term “social work” used in North America and the UK. Education in its broadest sense stands at the center of social pedagogy – which in Germany, is considered a sub-discipline of educational sciences – and “encompasses all elements of living and learning as one unified process of developmental change and growth” (Gharabaghi & Groskleg, 2010). Gertrud Bäumer's often cited definition of social pedagogy as a professional field of action – “education that is neither school nor family” – demonstrates that in Germany, education and learning are not restricted to school. This broad understanding of education and learning starts with the very idea that every kind of learning is rooted in the everyday life of a young person (Grunwald & Thiersch, 2009), in his/her biography (Marotzki, 2006), and in his/her position in social structure (Bernfeld, 1973). Learning therefore takes place in very different environments and at very different locations: in peer groups, in the family, by watching TV, at playgrounds and so on; education is connected to this broad understanding of learning and encompasses all kinds of social practices that are connected to these learning opportunities and are intended to direct this process (BMFSFJ, 2005). Social pedagogy as a discipline, therefore “[has to] examine the social conditions of education and the educative conditions of social life, always under the justified assumption that the forms of society are changeable, that they are subject to development” (Natorp, 1894, p. 86). Against this background, it is not surprising that education has always been connected to child and youth care, but in a very different way than in Anglo-Saxon countries: behavioral problems of children in out-of-home care are for example first and foremost considered efforts by children and youth to cope with social disadvantages or a challenging social environment. This perspective is far from playing down the negative sides of behavioral problems, but it “regards all children, and indeed all human beings, as, on the one hand, in need of educational guidance for the full development of their potential, more explicitly obviously in youth and in crisis situations, and, on the other hand, as capable of always developing themselves further, provided the requisite resources are available” (Lorenz, 2008, p. 636). This different disciplinary and theoretical approach to out-ofhome care has several consequences, of which we would like to mention three: Firstly, social pedagogues in Germany are trained in education and educational sciences. A large part of their academic training deals with issues such as how young people learn, how to shape the social environment so that these young people are encouraged to learn, and how to educate young people (Petrie et al., 2009). Secondly, interventions are designed in such a way that children in care have the possibility of learning to behave in a different way and of acquiring skills that enable them to solve the social problems they are facing in a different way. Therefore, social pedagogues encourage what is called biographical learning, a kind of learning that takes into account not only certain parts of a young person's life, but also his/her whole biography (Thiersch, 2007). Lastly, research approaches and projects are often focused on the learning and
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education processes taking place in child and youth care. There are only a few large-scale quantitative studies on out-of-home care, but a broad range of qualitative research projects that tend to analyze particularly the processes of learning and education in care facilities (Gabriel, Keller, & Studer, 2007). 2.3. German research on education and care This fact leads to the aforementioned lack of knowledge about the academic status and achievement of children in out-of-home care. The most comprehensive studies on this topic are already several years old and do not closely examine the academic situation (Bürger, 1990; JULE, 1998; Schmidt et al., 2002). However, current statistical data can give indications on the school attendance of young people in and after care. This data suggests that just under a third of young adults receiving residential welfare care are, at the time the care ends, neither attending a school, nor receiving vocational training or career-related support (Köngeter, Schröer, & Zeller, 2008). These high figures, particularly among the 15- to 18-yearolds, show that in Germany, the number of early school leavers and school refusers is higher among young people in care compared to their same-age peers. While studies on the relationship between out-of-home care and educational attainment are rare, there is a considerable amount of research focusing on the educational processes taking place both in care and in school. Only recently, a study financed by the German federal government involving 378 participants in different fields of child and youth care (residential care, education in a day group, and socio-educational support of families) analyzed the importance of schooling for the progress of children in care. This study demonstrates that better grades in school are closely connected with the well-being of children in care, and that this higher school attainment is connected with a trusting relationship between the young person and adults in care facilities and young people's perception of their ability to participate in the care planning process (Albus et al., 2010). Besides this study, biographical analyses have become particularly popular in research on child and youth care (among the more recent studies are: Finkel, 2004; Hamberger, 2008; Rätz-Heinisch, 2005). This is due to the widespread assumption in the field of social pedagogy in Germany that child and youth care should orient itself toward the subjective endowment of life with meaning and the biographical learning of young people in care. Biographical learning means the acquisition of different coping strategies to deal with their own social environment. Their social environment encompasses not only their family, peers and community, but also institutional (e.g. school and vocational training) and societal challenges (e.g. social disadvantages, poverty). The aforementioned biographical studies analyze biographical narratives of young people in care and after and show how professionals and organizations in the field of child and youth care influence and shape their biographical learning. 2.4. An integrated research approach to education and learning in school and care A review of research on the relationship between out-of-home care and school in English-speaking countries and Germany reveals not only differences in the amount of knowledge available on this topic, but also in the kind of research conducted and the way this topic is approached by researchers. The social pedagogical tradition in Germany emphasizes learning and education in their broadest sense. This focus leads both to a lack of knowledge about school attainment of children in care and to a variety of research on and knowledge of (biographical) learning processes within an out-of-home care setting and the way to influence these processes. The latter is the reason for the popularity of social pedagogy in various English-speaking countries nowadays (Cameron, Petrie, Wigfall, Kleipoedszus, & Jasper, 2001). This review, however,
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also shows that such a transnational exchange of knowledge must be sensitive to the fact that research and knowledge are integrated in longstanding theoretical and disciplinary pathways that are present in the various countries and influence their research approaches. The research question of the study, which will be presented in the following, takes up the lack of knowledge about school achievement of young people leaving care that is evident in Germany. Nevertheless, the research is not focused on how residential care – as an independent variable – impacts educational achievement, but rather first calls attention to the biography of the young person in care. Secondly, it analyzes the connection between biographical learning and academic learning. Lastly, the study asks how organizations and professionals in the field of residential care facilitate biographical and academic learning processes. 3. Method The current study is based on biographical analyses of young women who have left residential care. Ever since “the biographical turn” (Chamberlayne, Bornat, & Wengraf, 2000), biographical analysis has been a recognized method of qualitative research, which currently seems particularly popular in Germany (Apitzsch & Inowlocki, 2004). Since the study follows the European methodological research tradition, the term “biographical analysis” is used. “Narrative analysis” (Riessman, 2004), a research approach better known in North America, refers to a related methodological procedure. Biographical analysis corresponds with a specific theoretical framework for the meaning of biography (see above). Schütze (2007) combines theoretical assumptions about how individuals construct meaning in their lives drawn from German phenomenology with the symbolic interactionism and the analytic procedures of Strauss (1987) as a means of researching social processes and social change. Thus, biographical analysis specifically enables us to study processes, and in particular processes of suffering as well as learning processes, and therefore matches the research aim of analyzing the connection between learning processes in school and in care.
3.3. Sampling This study follows the guidelines of theoretical sampling as introduced by Glaser and Strauss (1967). Therefore, data collection took place over a period of 14 months. The analysis of the first data led to the decision as to which interviews to conduct next. Overall, there were four phases of data collection in collaboration with six agencies. In order to find contrasting cases, some theoretical selection criteria were determined, such as different regions, different types of agencies, rural and urban areas or migration background. Moreover, the collaborating agencies were asked to find young women with different life stories. During the process of data analysis, the three cases which seemed to contrast most with each other were chosen (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Schütze, 1983).
3.4. Autobiographical interviews The autobiographical interview (Schütze, 1983) was used for data collection. The autobiographical interview makes use of the competence people use in everyday life to communicate with other people about their lives in the form of narratives and calls on participants to report about their life impromptu. Such impromptu stories are meant to give the interview participant the opportunity to present their view of themselves and the world without any prior restrictions set by the researcher. In order to encourage such impromptu stories, the interview conversation starts with an initial question, a so-called stimulus to narrate. For this study, the following stimulus was used: “Then I would like you to remember and to tell your life story … how little by little things fell into place…”. Two types of inquiries follow the initial narrative. With the help of so-called “immanent” inquiries, the informant is asked to elaborate on some events. In contrast, “exmanent” inquiries are used to prompt the informant to sum up and to reflect upon his/her own life and biography (Jovchelovitch & Bauer, 2000). The length of the participants' impromptu stories varied between 3 min and 2 h.
3.1. Recruitment of participants Autobiographical interviews were conducted with young women for data collection. Under the German Data Protection Act, the only way to contact care leavers is through the agencies that provided residential care. For this study, child and youth care agencies from different provinces (Bundesländer) and counties (Landkreise/Städte) were asked to contact ex-clients for permission to provide their current telephone number to the researcher. 3.2. Sample Altogether, fifteen autobiographical interviews were conducted. Since the aim was to reconstruct learning processes, the following selection criterion was applied: the client must have left the residential group home and the period of compulsory school attendance must have ended at least one year before the interview. Furthermore, the study focused on young women. Gender-specific studies have a longstanding tradition in research on child and youth welfare in Germany (Finkel, 2004; Hartwig, 1992; Kieper, 1980), since it is well known that statistics point out gender-specific differences: for instance, girls are on average older than boys when accessing the child and youth welfare system and they more often report the abuse or neglect they suffer to the Children's Aid Society themselves (Bronner & Behnisch, 2007). Nevertheless, a qualitative sample cannot draw conclusions about young women in general. Rather, the individual case studies make it possible to point out differences within the same gender.
3.5. Data analysis For data analysis, all interviews were recorded and transcribed. It is assumed that during the impromptu narrative, the informants order their experiences in a certain way. It is therefore interesting to proceed sequentially at the analysis stage. Furthermore, it is crucial that both the content (the what) and the structure (the how) of the narrative are taken into account. Specifically, in the analysis, the steps suggested by Schütze (1983); namely, collection of first impressions, analysis of objective data, formal text analysis, sequential analysis, and analytical abstraction were performed first. Additional steps were borrowed from the paradigm of grounded theory and correspond with common practice in qualitative social research: (a) finding contrasting comparisons; (b) constructing a theoretical model (Glaser & Strauss, 1967).
4. Results Given its focus on biographical and academic learning processes, this study emphasizes the importance of case analyses and comparisons. For a presentation of results, it is therefore necessary to first highlight the structure of the particular learning processes before working out essential aspects by comparing the cases. Two maximally contrasting cases are at the core of the presentation: Caroline and Marlene. The analysis of these two cases reveals important links between academic achievements and biographical learning structures.
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4.1. Caroline's case When Caroline was 16 years old, she left her family because of sexual abuse by her father and maltreatment by her mother. She entered the child and youth welfare system and was placed in a residential group home for girls. There, she met her social worker Sylvia, with whom she established a very good relationship. Sylvia became a significant other (Mead, 1934; Owens, 2007), a person whom she trusted and who gave her advice on how to live her life. But at the same time, the struggles with her family during her transition to the residential group home led to disruptions in her academic career. Furthermore, Caroline had problems getting along with the other girls in the residential group home. After a quarrel with the girls, she decided to move to another, far away town. There, she resumed her vocational training as a kindergarten teacher, but found it even harder to cope with her problems as she had no one to rely on and she especially missed Sylvia. Caroline felt more and more depressed until a doctor sent her to a psychiatric hospital. She stayed there for a few weeks and in that time, realized that she couldn't change her life by running away. She reflected that she couldn't live without social relationships and that she had to come to terms with her past before she could move on to the future. Realizing these issues, she steered her life in another direction. She went to court to charge her father with the abuse. She went back to vocational training, graduated as a kindergarten teacher and moved back close to the town where she had lived during the time she stayed at the residential group home. In terms of formal learning and education, Caroline's experience was that in general, she had the ability to be a successful student, but in particular, there were phases in her life when she was not successful or even skipped school. Caroline explains this pattern as follows: “I know I can learn, but if my mind is busy coping with problems, studying in school doesn't work at all”. During her stay at the residential group home, she therefore regarded school as a relatively unimportant issue that she was hardly willing to discuss with Sylvia, although Sylvia always told her that she considered school important. In Caroline's case, a biographical learning process can be outlined. It starts when she talks to Sylvia about her life and seeks her advice. Particularly, her stay at the clinic seems like a time-out in which she realized that she could not reinvent herself, but had to re-evaluate the past to effect a lasting change in her life. Thus, Caroline's case demonstrates that reflection is one crucial aspect of a biographical learning process. A second important factor is the initiative to change her attitude towards her family and to transform the way she acts towards them, e.g. by charging her father with the abuse. By moving on from her experiences with her family, she becomes able to develop plans for her future within new relationships (Sylvia, boyfriend, friends), beyond family relationships. Furthermore, the case suggests the existence of a close link between biographical crisis and academic success: disruptions in school attendance took place after entering the residential group home. However, the biographical analysis shows that not the residential group home, but the incomplete biographical learning process led to her flight to another town and to the discontinuation of her vocational training. After the outlined biographical learning process took place, school attendance and achievement were not an issue anymore. 4.2. Marlene's case As far as Marlene can remember, everyday life in her family has been characterized by a strict upbringing. The reconstruction of Marlene's case reveals a very complex family pattern in the areas of love, respect and affection: she experienced that (a) her parents only loved her if her (physical) appearance and her performance at school were perfect; (b) to love meant to obey her parents, who sought to determine every single step in her life and did not allow her any privacy;
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(c) she could never be sure of her parents' love. In addition, Marlene currently suspects that she was abused within her family, but cannot recall any specific facts. To fulfill the demands of the existing family pattern, Marlene became first anorexic and later bulimic at the age of eleven. As she grew older, she tried to escape her parents' total control and started dating her boyfriend, by whom she became pregnant at the age of fifteen. After she told her mother about the pregnancy, she was forced to have a clandestine abortion to protect the family's reputation. This she recalls as the worst situation in her lifetime. After the abortion, Marlene made several attempts to leave her family and finally entered the child and youth welfare system. A bachelor apartment was rented for her and she received regular support from Susan, her social worker. During the following two years, on the one hand, Marlene established a very good relationship with Susan. On the other hand, this relationship turned out to be rather ambivalent because Marlene drew Susan into relationship patterns which had similarities to her family's pattern of love and respect, and Susan was not able to reflect on her involvement. Marlene also tried different therapies, but still describes herself as dangerously bulimic. After leaving her family, Marlene entered two relationships with different men, whom she loves, as she puts it, although neither of them treats her well. In both relationships, Marlene exposes herself to exploitation and dependency, which hinders her from developing plans for her future life. In terms of formal learning and education, Marlene initially was a successful student, as her parents expected her to be. In her efforts to gain the love of her parents, which could (only) be achieved by being a perfect child, she worked hard at school. However, as the family situation became more and more difficult, she often skipped school. After entering the child and youth welfare system, Marlene tried to catch up in school again for a time, but was not as successful anymore. Therefore, she decided to leave school after the period of compulsory school attendance and to start a three-year vocational training as an office clerk. At the male-dominated training site, she was drawn into a situation of exploitation and at risk of being abused. She tries to escape this situation and dreams of starting a business on her own with one of her boyfriends, although she is officially still a trainee at the office. In Marlene's case, the biographical learning process falters. Although Marlene herself mentions some behavioral changes in her everyday life, various areas of her life seem to mirror her family's emotional and behavioral patterns. Neither with Susan's help nor with the therapist's has she been able to reflect on the abuse that took place. Both facts result in the reproduction of patterns of abuse in her relationships with men, both in her private life and in her vocational training. They also hinder Marlene from developing plans for her future without reinforcing her dependency on abusive men.
4.3. Comparison of cases Caroline and Marlene are two maximally contrasting cases with respect to their pattern of biographical learning. While the analysis of Caroline's narrative reveals a change in her way of acting, Marlene's narrative shows a repeated involvement in questionable, if not abusive relationships. Even though some changes in this kind of involvement and efforts to escape this circle of reproduction – e.g. engaging in therapies, developing business plans – can be pointed out, she is still not aware of the fact that some of the men she is in contact with use her dependency on them. By contrast, Caroline ceases her dominant action pattern of flight and starts confronting herself and her parents with the harm she has suffered. This is also shown by the analysis of how her narrative pattern is changing. Before talking about her time in the psychiatric hospital, she avoided referring to her parents as actors, whereas her later accounts mentioning her father and mother clearly name these persons and their responsibilities.
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The two analyses of the biographical learning processes reveal the different meaning of academic achievement for these young women. For Caroline, school is not strongly connected with academic success, it is a place where she builds friendships with schoolmates and experiences integration into her peer group. Her academic career appears to mirror her biographical situation: crises in her biography and her social environment almost immediately lead to a deterioration of her academic performance or even to disruptions of it. Taking up her vocational training after the watershed that the therapeutic treatment represents is a way of gaining control of her life. For Marlene, however, academic success is associated with the rigorous educational climate prevailing in her family. She does not regard academic achievement as a resource potentially leading to independence and continues her involvement in dependent relationships and her career is even linked to men who seem to use her. Furthermore, the comparison shows the different connections between biographical and academic learning processes. In both cases, entering the child and youth care system did not mean the end of the biographical crisis, but, at that point, the experience of another “traumatic life event” (Filipp, 1995; Lambers, 1996). On the contrary, as the case of Caroline reveals, it can mean the beginning of a biographical learning process that can even lead to a disruption of the academic career. Only after provisional completion of the biographical learning process, initiated by the residential care facility and the social pedagogue, and enhanced by her stay in the psychiatric hospital, did Caroline have the ability to resume her vocational training. By contrast, Marlene, stuck in her biographical learning process, was not able to resume her formerly successful academic career. For her, academic and now vocational success is not a means to become independent, but rather still a means to gain recognition from others. Therefore, both cases reveal the importance of biographical learning for academic advancement, though with different conclusions. On the other hand, this result confirms the fact introduced in research on school culture that the more students have on their minds, the less they can get involved in school and studying (Kramer, 2002). Both cases shed light on the fact that young people leaving care are delayed in their academic careers compared to their same-age peers. As a result, biographical crises can prolong the time spent in education in school and/or training. The respective roles of the social pedagogues involved in the two cases differ considerably. Sylvia, a significant other for Caroline, supported her during the complicated learning process and continued the relationship even after Caroline had left the residential group home. It was also Sylvia who reminded Caroline of the importance of school attainment. Susan, Marlene's social pedagogue, also developed a close relationship with her as a significant other. But this relationship was strongly influenced by the difficulties Marlene was facing with her family. Susan's strong involvement in these family struggles hindered her from accompanying a learning process in Marlene. This partiality also carried weight in the decision as to whether Marlene should continue high school or start vocational training. The decision against high school was one against the father's wishes, but not favorable to Marlene's plans for the future. Consequently, on the one hand, the case analysis indicates the importance of significant others in initiating and accompanying learning processes and school attainment. On the other hand, becoming a significant other is not a sufficient factor for a successful outcome, as Marlene's case shows. Finally, the biographical analysis in both cases, but also in other cases in the sample, shows the marginal role of teachers and schools with respect to both biographical learning and decisions on the academic careers of young people in care. On the contrary, Caroline even experienced discrimination by a teacher for living in a residential care facility. This leads to questions about the school system's degree of sensitivity to this kind of issue, which social pedagogues often complain is not high enough (Zeller, 2007).
5. Discussion 5.1. Connection between biographical learning and academic attainment The qualitative study we introduced explored the connection between biographical learning and academic attainment. In short, the results of the study emphasize that situations of biographical crisis can clearly be an obstacle to successful school attendance. At the same time, if a biographical learning process has taken place, it is very likely that education will be successfully resumed. Therefore, the findings of this study can be complemented with the results drawn from the other most recent German study (Albus et al., 2010), which shows that better grades in school are closely connected with the well-being of children in care. In short, the connection can be described as follows: biographical crises inhibit academic attainment, and vice versa: academic attainment increases well-being. This connection between biographical learning processes and academic attainment suggests several consequences, of which we would like to mention three: Firstly, the advantages of a broader approach to education and learning should be taken into consideration in both research and practice. As a research perspective, this approach promises more insights into educational processes, both in care and in school. In social work practice, this involves changing professional conducts and the shape interventions take. Supporting biographical learning would then be the main aim of social pedagogy-inspired social work from an educational point of view. Secondly, the awareness of the connection between biographical learning and learning in school leads to the insight that academic success in children in care is often quite fragile: periods of stability and success could be interrupted by biographical crises. Therefore, a specific theoretical perspective is needed when discussing the encouragement of learning processes in general. At no point – including after implementing a specific measure – should it be assumed that school attainment of children in care is linear. This means that social workers should continuously reflect on the dynamics that arise between the demands of school and the demands of the biographical situation of the young person in care. Thirdly, as these interruptions occur on a regular basis in the case of children in care, it is important to extend the formal and informal support beyond the age of eighteen. Various research studies have shown that young people are reaching adulthood later and later nowadays (Arnett, 2007). Young adults now require more time to become autonomous in terms of income, housing, partnership and so on. Care leavers, however, are expected to cope with this transition to adulthood much faster than their peers, with less support and professional qualifications. 5.2. Strengths and limitations of the study The study has several strengths and limitations, which are important to recognize. The in-depth analysis of cases reveals the interaction between biographical and academic learning in young women in care. Although biographical analyses consider both the how and the what of biographical narratives, and therefore are able to present more than the mere opinions of care leavers, the study has no access to the actual course of actions. Its retrospective character is one important limitation that should be taken into account. Although in some cases, the interactions between biography and academic career are somewhat different or more complex, the analyses reveal the importance of these interaction processes. Another set of strengths and limitations is linked to the sampling process. Selecting only young women as interview partners takes into account research on gender differences in biographical learning processes (e.g. Felden, 2003). By sampling young women based on their contrasting biographies, it becomes possible to show variances in the connection between biographical and academic learning within
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the biographies of young women. However, further biographical analyses are needed for boys in out-of-home care and young men who have left care. Finally, this paper only presented two cases. However, this article is based on exhaustive research on biographical learning processes in young women leaving care (Zeller, 2012, forthcoming). In this context, it is important to recognize that qualitative and quantitative studies differ in their strategies of generalization of results. Especially biographical research aims at contrasting cases in such a way that these cases exhaustively represent the infinite variety of possible cases. The two cases presented in this article were selected to demonstrate the starkest possible contrasts between biographical learning processes in child and youth care among young women. These contrasting cases could also reveal maximally different connections between biographical and academic learning processes. However, this article presents only the most important aspects of the contrasts that could be found in the study. Moreover, qualitative exhaustivity is no substitute for quantitative representativity. Further quantitative research on the basis of these qualitative findings is therefore advisable. 5.3. Implications for practice The study demonstrates the need for biographical sensitivity when working with children in care and young care leavers, given that improvements in academic achievements are closely connected with biographical learning processes. Especially with children in out-of-home care, it is important to support their biographical learning efforts in order to stabilize their school attendance and their educational outcomes. It is therefore important for professionals in child and youth care facilities to develop a biographical sensitivity and methods to support biographical learning processes in children and youth (e.g. Homfeldt, 2004). In the field of social pedagogy in Germany, the developments in biographical research have been widely adopted by practitioners and child and youth care facilities. The term “biographical work” (Kraul & Marotzki, 2002) refers to the effort to make use of methodological advancements in research and to support the reflection of young people in care on their biography. Biographical work is a collaborative effort by the young people in care and the practitioner, who has an honest interest in the biography of the individual young person. In order to learn more about the biography of a client and to start the biographical work, a practitioner uses special conversation techniques and creates settings that enable children and youth in care to tell their personal life story (or parts of it) in detail (Lattschar & Wiemann, 2007; Ryan & Walker, 2007). Autobiographical interviews are particularly suited to initiate such a process, but life books are also a popular tool (e.g. Backhaus, 1994). Furthermore, it is important for practitioners to support reflective biographical work by promoting opportunities to reflect in everyday counseling situations. The case analyses reveal the importance of connecting biographical learning with decisions that have to be made in everyday life. However, biographical learning can take place alongside and in interaction with formal academic learning. There are many ways in which social pedagogues can support the young people's formal academic career, such as by supervising homework, negotiating with teachers in conflict situations, hiring tutors, etc. Regardless of the supportive instruments chosen, it seems very helpful that social pedagogues tell the young people that they consider school important and set an example for them in this regard. Finally, it is important for the practitioner to reflect on the connections between biographical learning processes and academic achievement. This is indispensable, not only given the worrying educational outcomes of children in care, but also from a biographical point of view: Since the findings of Albus et al. (2010) demonstrate the impact
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