Research Aim

Families are becoming increasingly diverse and complex. This results in two main challenges for research and schools:

(1) Knowledge about how children handle this complexity and what images of families they encounter in their daily lives is limited, as children's perspectives are not sufficiently taken into consideration, often due to a lack of appropriate methods.

(2) Teachers are frequently confronted with the diversity and complexity of families and are also required by the curriculum to address these topics. However, there is a lack of easily applicable materials for effective teaching implementation.

The MiKA project addresses these challenges and focuses on children's perceptions of family diversity.

Research Group and Methods

Based on a participatory concept, research on family diversity is conducted together with primary school students (third and fourth grade of elementary school), and in collaboration with student teachers from the University of Teacher Education Vienna (PH Wien), an easily applicable card set titled “Colorful Families: Discovery Cards on Family Diversity” is being developed.

The students participate in four research workshops using innovative methods (such as a "treasure hunt" to collect family images, artifact analysis, and concept cartoon discussions). To ensure the teaching material is implementable in classrooms and has long-lasting effects, student teachers from PH Wien are involved throughout the research process, co-design the workshops, and evaluate the card set in their practice classes with primary school students (peer feedback).

The collaboratively developed card set will be made permanently and freely available through the project’s website. To achieve further lasting effects, the card set and research findings will be presented at a publicly accessible event.

 

School Cooperations

VS Dietrichgasse, Wien
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VS Großhöflein, Burgenland
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Cooperation Partner

Pädagogische Hochschule, Wien
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Citation

  • Zartler, Ulrike. (2024-2027). Researching families together with children (MiKA). Children's concepts of family diversity. Research project at the Institute of Sociology, University of Vienna.