Educational pathways and the influence ...

In this paper we want to offer some initial insights into an ongoing study on the education and work situation of care leavers in Austria. We describe the transitional and educational situation of care leavers in Austria based on existing data. Then we explain the aims and design of the research project “Educational opportunities and the influence of social contextual conditions on educational biographies of care leavers”. In a biographically oriented qualitative study, narrative interviews and network analyses are used to determine whether and how care leavers have been hampered in their educational pathways, what opened up the way for them and what influence social frameworks had on their educational biographies. Finally, we will outline some of the study's initial results based on the case example of “Chantal”.