Drawing on the results of a qualitative triangulation study which explored the development of educational inequality from the actor’s perspective, the paper examines transitions between educational orientations of 13-year-old-students, their parents and friends (Deppe, 2015). The framing questions are: Which education-related orientations and transitions from the interplay of parental orientations and practices, and the biography of adolescents do emerge? How do friends groups transform, complement or reject etc. the educational orientations of the families? How do the single young adolescents process these sometimes opposing orientations in family and peer group in their biographies (following Bourdieu with the assumption of a primary and secondary habitus adding/questioning another habitus socialized by interacting with peers)? What are the consequences for the young adolescents and their school careers? First of all, the requirements for educational research into non-school settings are discussed. Then, the hitherto largely unconnected fields of research into educational biographies, families and peer settings are examined to ascertain how they could contribute to the goal of a qualitative triangulation study. This is followed by a presentation of the questions and the conceptual and empirical methods of the study, before the results are presented in the form of a typology of the transitions between parents and peers. The students attended the seventh grade in various secondary school types in Germany. The sample students were collected from five different schools which differed considerably in their type, regional and sociocultural environment. The field research included interviews with the students based on qualitative biographical interviews, group discussions with their friends and interviews with the parents of the focused students as well. All data were analysed with the Documentary Method by Ralf Bohnsack (eg, Bohnsack, Pfaff and Weller, 2010) and is based on assumptions of Karl Mannheim’s sociology of knowledge. The theoretical frame of the study is also connected to the cultural sociology of Pierre Bourdieu, especially his ideas on reproduction of society through education and the habitus (eg, Bourdieu and Passeron, 1977). The paper concludes by distinguishing the transitions of the young adolescents between parents, peers and school. Differences between educational strategies and daily knowledge in terms of practices as well as educational orientations varying by social origin are discussed within. The paper outlines a number of topics and areas for future empirical studies and new methodological and theoretical perspectives from the project research.

Bohnsack, R., Pfaff, N. and Weller, W., (eds) (2010), Qualitative Analysis and Documentary Method in International Educational Research, Opladen and Farmington Hills: Barbara Budrich Publishers Bourdieu, P. and Passeron, J.-C., (1977), Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture, London and Beverly Hills: Sage Publications. Deppe, U., (2015), Jüngere Jugendliche zwischen Familie, Peers und Schule. Zur Entstehung von Bildungsungleichheit in außerschulischen Bildungsorten. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.