Family and Welfare State Change: Challenges for Education

Abstract

“Education” has become a very important formula in the self-descriptive repertoire of modern societies. It is also seen as the fundamental means to improve societies and as the decisive tool for overcoming a host of social problems and social pathologies such as social inequality. Lastly, state leaders and others think that education provides the best resources for succeeding in the processes of international competitiveness. But, simultaneously, the real educational assets of especially the young generation are evaluated as not optimal. These negative evaluations can be found in many media presentations in Germany today, and they deal with very diverse issues—beginning with the necessary reform of the systems of early education and ending with the, in a comparative frame, seemingly underdeveloped tertiary system. Another bundle of factors considered relevant for reforming educational processes and institutions is located in the family. Critics say that parents are not fulfilling their educational duty and are unable to raise their children adequately in terms of the necessary cognitive, motivational, and emotional competencies for a successful career in the educational system. These arguments are be found not only in the public arena but also among many professionals such as teachers, as Toppe (2010a, b) and Richter (2010) have shown empirically. Mainly, the expansion of childcare and of all-day schools is propagated as a promising remedy for the lack of competencies in children from the lower social strata and as a means to reconcile work and family.