The family as a place of education. Between a school-centred focus on education and family needs

Abstract

The results of the PISA studies over recent years have revealed the social selectivity of the scholastic education system. Based on my empirical research on families with mentally ill parents, I show how, for the children involved, social exclusion begins before they even start school; how the parents' mental illness is seen to affect the children, and what support the families in question require. This shows how important it is to take family coping situations into account in the educational discourse on the child and youth welfare services and formal education systems.