In hardly any other format is the dimension of the temporalisation of the social and thus also of education as clear as in biography (Alheit & Dausien, 2000; Stasz, 1976; Tileagă, 2011). As a social construction, biographies are created at the interface between the individual and society: they are therefore often described as an amalgamation of the micro and macro levels. The interplay of past, present and future produces an individual story of learning and education (Schulze, 1993). It is this form of temporalisation that promises continuity and reliability beyond all disruptions and uncertainties, especially in the course of social pluralisation, increasing uncertainties and (global) social crises (e.g. consequences of ecological catastrophes and devastation), as described in Society on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Lessenich, 2022). Not only the reference to past and present, but also the future openness of the biography is of central importance here.

Therefore, we think it is important to take a closer look at the logic of the biographical and the associated bodies of knowledge, when considering the shaping of the future from an educational perspective. Biographical knowledge is not only individual, but closely linked to social and collective memories (Alheit & Hoerning, 1989). It is ultimately from this reservoir (e.g. surplus meaning of life experience - Alheit, 2022, p. 119) that the potential for shaping the future is drawn. In our contribution, we would like to take a look at this potential and focus on the significance of remembering and forgetting for education and the construction of the future. Our thesis is that the study of forgetting in particular has received too little attention, and that its perspectivisation holds productive potential for research on education and the future. Based on this thesis, we show in our presentation how forgetting in its various forms (e.g. erasure, concealment, silence, overwriting, ignoring, neutralisation, denial and loss) (Assmann, 2016) can open up new perspectives on un/certainty, the future and initiate education.

In order to develop our considerations, we proceed as follows: First, we outline the constructed nature of biographies in order to then theoretically sharpen the meaning that forgetting and the forgotten have for education and the future; second, we underpin our considerations with two empirical examples; and finally, we conclude by emphasising the relevance of forgetting for the study of education and the future in uncertain times.

Our contribution is based on a theoretical analysis of educational and biographical theory as well as contributions from social science memory research. Using two empirical examples from our own research on biographies in the context of education and social inequality, we show how the individual (forgotten) biographical past and the collective (forgotten) past relate to each other, and the potential implications for education and shaping of the future. The focus is on the German education system. In our analysis, we follow the interpretive paradigm of qualitative social research (Rosenthal, 2018). The case studies were analysed using sociolinguistic process analysis (narrative analysis) (Schütze, 2008), which enables the analysis of biographical processes in the interdependence of social conditions and individual patterns of action and interpretation. Analysing forgetting poses a particular challenge, for which we present some heuristic considerations: e.g. how can biographical pearls be used to track down oblivion in biographical-narrative interviews (Epp, 2023)?

Based on the case studies, we show that what has been forgotten can be (re)remembered and (retrospectively) connected to the biographical "code of experience" (Alheit & Dausien, 2000, p. 276) from the narrative present. Following Assmann's systematisation of forgetting, we illustrate that new associations can be made with what has been forgotten and that it can thus be connected (in a modified way) to present-day experience. We emphasise how forgetting can be a catalyst for education and can be used productively to shape the future and deal with uncertainty. In this way, it can go hand in hand with a changed view of the world and the self, and promote the recovery of agency. We also emphasise the paradoxical structure of forgetting in the context of biographical learning and educational processes. In the context of biographical change processes, for example, emotionally stressful, traumatic and/or hurtful experiences that have already been reflexively processed can be forgotten and productively integrated into the biography. This means that what could not previously be forgotten and was always present in an extraordinarily intrusive and distant way is now 'absorbed' into the biography without continuing to trigger or promote a crisis-like state. Nevertheless, forgetting traumatic, emotionally stressful and/or hurtful experiences can cause crises in the first place, as certain experiences that have been forced into oblivion elude reflexive biographical processing. Ultimately, however, this crisis also holds educational potential (Koller, 2012): Individuals can be challenged to (fundamentally) reorganise previous patterns of action and thought. For example, to remember and (biographically) process what has been forgotten in order to ultimately be able to forget it - without it continuing to have the same effect as before. Furthermore, we discuss the extent to which educational processes initiated by forgetting are accompanied by an un/certainty regarding the processing of the future.

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