Families in a changing society: How Biographies Inspire Education

The paper shows the recent changes in family life as growing examples of uncertainty and "disorder". Public and private life are linked in paradoxical ways: if the twentieth century was shaped through the construct of "private life" (Ariès, Duby), privacy is menaced by the State and its institutions, in an effort to control relationships. The rhetoric of parental incompetence was scientifically built throughout the last century; a word as "parenthood" was invented to define the quality of parental work. In this frame, family learning and education can be understood as a meso-level, between the micro and the macro, subjectivity and social structures. This proximal system is the terrain where one learns about biographicity (Alheit), i.e. the hidden capacity to lead one's own life. Biographic and narrative interviews with new parents show the relevance of the nearer system of relations (providing informal education, care, tacit learning) in the building of a sense of competence and agency.