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[personnel 6116]

You can find my current resume here.

 

PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately, I am fully booked for supervising Bachelor’s and Master’s theses for the Summer Semester 26 and Winter Semester 26/27. I will not be responding to inquiries regarding this matter. 

 

Curriculum Vitae

Since 2025: Research Associate at the Professorship of School Research with a Focus on Youth (Prof. Dr. Sina-Mareen Köhler), University of Cologne

2025: Ph.D. from the University of Cologne, Department of Education and Social Sciences – summa cum laude (0.0). Title of the dissertation: “Sibling Conflicts and Family Education: A Reconstructive Study on Conflict Practices Between Siblings as a Topic of Education” (Publication: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-50272-0). Primary reviewer: Prof. Dr. Jutta Ecarius (University of Cologne); Secondary reviewer: Prof. Dr. Uwe Uhlendorff (TU Dortmund).

 2018–2025: Research Associate at the Chair of General Educational Sciences with a focus on Family, Youth, and Generational Research (Prof. Dr. Jutta Ecarius), University of Cologne

Website: https://www.hf.uni-koeln.de/39722

2022–2023: Research Assistant in the Department of General Educational Science at the FernUniversität in Hagen (acting professor: Dr. Marc Fabian Buck)

Website: https://e.feu.de/144

2021–2022: Lecturer in the Department of General Educational Science at the FernUniversität Hagen (acting professor: Dr. Anja Schierbaum)

2018: Master of Arts in Educational Science. Specialization in General Educational Science and Adult Education/Continuing Education, University of Cologne

2015–2018: Student assistant at the Chair of General Education with a focus on Family, Youth, and Generational Research (Prof. Dr. Jutta Ecarius), University of Cologne

2014: Bachelor of Arts degree. Majors: General and Comparative Literature (Comparative Literature) and Education, Ruhr University Bochum

2012–2014: Student Assistant at the Chair of Vocational and Business Education, Prof. Dr. Klaus Harney, Ruhr University Bochum

Research Focuses

  • Educational family research with a focus on family upbringing, family conflicts, and family and COVID-19
  • Sibling research (sibling conflicts, sibling relationships in large families, siblings as role models)
  • Educational research on youth (Doing Youth, political socialization of adolescents)
  • The (New) Military Service from an Educational Perspective: Transitions into military service, peer culture among young conscripts (in terms of care and education), pedagogical relationships between young conscripts and their instructors (education)
  • Educational theory and empirical research on education
  • Conflict research in the context of the family, intergenerational conflicts, domestic violence, competition and rivalry among siblings, reconciliation practices
  • Transition research (pedagogical design of the transition phase following the birth of a sibling)
  • Schools of thought and approaches in pedagogy and educational science

Methods of qualitative-reconstructive social research:

  • Data collection methods: biographical, narrative, and problem-centered interviews (e.g., Schütze, Witzel), group discussions
  • Data analysis methods: Documentary method, narrative structure analysis

Since 2026: (New) Military Service as a Rite of Passage for Young People

At the latest with Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the increasingly fragile state of international relations—for example, with the United States—new questions regarding security policy are being discussed in Germany. A central challenge is ensuring that the military is capable of defending the country in the event of war. Due to existing personnel and resource-related shortcomings in the Bundeswehr, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius called in 2023 for Germany to become “war-ready” and for the Bundeswehr and society to be prepared for this purpose[1]. One measure implemented to achieve this goal is the introduction of the “New Military Service”[2].

After compulsory military service was suspended in 2011—among other reasons, on the grounds that “an immediate territorial threat to Germany by conventional military means […] is unlikely” (BMVg, 2011c, p. 1f. in Haß, 2016, pp. 19–20), the “New Military Service,” introduced on January 1, 2026, can be interpreted as a reflection of a changed security situation. While this does not reinstate compulsory military service, in the future all 18-year-olds will receive a questionnaire to declare their willingness and ability to perform military service. For male adolescents, completing this questionnaire—as well as undergoing a physical examination starting in 2027—will be mandatory. The goal is to address personnel shortages in the Bundeswehr. Accompanying this, “measures to increase the program’s appeal”[3]—such as raising the gross pay from approximately €1,800 to approximately €2,600[4]—as well as enhanced civic education and public outreach, for example in schools, are to be implemented[5] [6].

For young people, military service is increasingly seen as an option in their life course. This is supported by current figures. In the first months of 2026, the Bundeswehr recorded a 15% increase in the number of conscripts compared to 2025[7]. Recent representative studies show that around one-quarter of 18- to 30-year-olds with no prior military service experience express interest in six months of basic training, and approximately one-third view this as a possibility (Brettfeld et al. 2025, p. 8). Other studies show that the willingness to enlist is highest among younger people in particular (Elbe, 2025, p. 29). For young people, the Bundeswehr ranks third among the most trustworthy institutions (Schneekloth/Albert, 2024, p. 70).

Little is known about how conscripts experience military service or how they are socialized and educated during it. This project, which has been running since 2026, takes this gap in knowledge as its starting point. The project interviews young people who have completed or are currently completing military service within the last 5 years. The interviews are analyzed using the documentary method. The goal is to identify meaningful, genetic typology.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCmpbDbYO8A (accessed May 6, 26).

[3] https://www.bmvg.de/de/neuer-wehrdienst (accessed May 6, 2026).

[4] https://www.infranken.de/ratgeber/karriere-geld/neuer-wehrdienst-soldaten-bundeswehr-bezuege-brutto-art-6257857; https://www.bundeswehr.de/de/menschen-karrieren/freiwilliger-wehrdienst (accessed May 6, 2026).

[5] https://www.rnd.de/politik/bundeswehr-wirbt-in-schulen-linke-beklagt-militaerpropaganda-im-klassenzimmer-U52UYKR73BAH7K6HIPDDRM2L74.html (Accessed May 6, 2026).

[6] https://www.mdr.de/nachrichten/deutschland/panorama/bundeswehr-schule-besuche-verteidigung-unterricht-100.html (Accessed May 26, 2006).

[7] https://www.bmvg.de/de/presse/positiver-personaltrend-bundeswehr-haelt-jahresvergleich-an-6081834 (Accessed May 6, 2026).

 

Since 2026: Collaboration on the project “Young People’s Living Environments and the Use of AI (LeJuKI),” Chair of School Research with a Focus on Youth, University of Cologne (Launched on March 1, 2026; Funding: Start-up funding from the University of Cologne)

Information about the project can be found on the official website.

Responsibilities:

  • Conducting interviews
  • Reconstructing interviews using the documentary method
  • Poster presentations

2018–2025 Dissertation Project (completed)

Dissertation Project: “Sibling Conflicts and Family Education: A Reconstructive Study of Conflicts Between Siblings as a Topic of Family Education” (completed, 2018–2025)

The dissertation was published in November 2025 under the title “Sibling Conflicts and Family Education. A Reconstructive Study on Conflict Education in Families with Siblings” in the series “Educational Family Research” by Springer VS: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-50272-0.

Current media content, social media discourse, and the demand for parenting guides indicate that the topic of “sibling conflicts” and how to address them in child-rearing is of broad social interest. In media such as books and films, sibling conflict is a time-honored sociocultural theme that remains relevant to this day (see Schneider et al. 2015; Onnen-Isemann/Rösch 2006). On social media, under hashtags such as #siblings, #geschwister, #siblingfights, or #siblingconflict, one can find videos that humorously explore various facets of the topic. The fact that many parents feel the need to discuss this topic is evident from relevant posts in parenting forums such as urbia.de. Parenting guides such as the bestseller “Geschwister als Team” (Schmidt 2018) are also in high demand.

This societal interest contrasts with a limited body of research and a lack of theoretical development on the topic of “sibling conflicts” in educational science (see Bossek 2022). Not only sibling conflicts, but intrafamilial conflicts in general have “not yet been sufficiently researched in terms of their concrete resolution” in educational science (Witzke/Macha 2013, p. 730).

The existence (and success) of the aforementioned parenting guides and other media is an indication that the practice of conflict resolution is apparently not the (sole) result of spontaneous cognitive development. Children do not possess a “genetic inheritance” that contains the “competencies” for resolving conflicts “constructively” and that unfolds in the course of their development from childhood to adolescence. According to Steck and Cizek (2001, p. 174, cited in Lamnek et al. 2012, p. 168), “children are not born with the ability to resolve conflicts verbally.” This means that children must learn how to argue. As I demonstrate in this study, this learning process is shaped not only by socialization among siblings but also by upbringing within the intergenerational parent-child relationship.

The study therefore focuses on the relationship between family education and sibling conflicts. It examines how parents teach their children to deal with sibling conflicts and how siblings resolve conflicts among themselves. The study is based on 82 problem-centered interviews (see Witzel/Reiter 2022) with parents and children from 22 families. The interviews were analyzed using the Documentary Method (see Nohl 2017). The result is a meaning-based typology comprising three types of conflict education.

Publications (all in German)

Monographs

  • Bossek, Jan Frederik (2025): Sibling Conflicts and Family Education. A Reconstructive Study on Conflict Management in Families with Siblings. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-50272-0. 

Anthologies

 Special Issues in Journals

  • Bossek, Jan Frederik/Budde, Jürgen/Schmolke, Rebecca (Eds.) (2025): Sibling Socialization in Large Families. Special Issue of *Diskurs: Childhood and Youth Research*, 20(4). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3224/diskurs.v20i4

 Articles, Journal Articles (double-blind peer-reviewed)

  • Bossek, Jan Frederik (2026): Conflict-Based Upbringing in the Transition to Siblinghood. Results of a Reconstructive Study. In: Eling, Vera/Meier, Michelle/Molina Ramirez, Magdalena/Baron, Franka: Conflicts in Early Childhood Education Practice. Different Perspectives on an “Everyday” Phenomenon. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa. pp. 59–80.
  • Bossek, Jan Frederik (2025): Sibling Coalitions and Conflict Education in Large Families. An Exploratory Reconstructive Approach. In: Bossek, Jan Frederik/Budde, Jürgen/Schmolke, Rebecca (Eds.): Sibling Socialization in Large Families. Special Issue of *Diskurs Kindheits- und Jugendforschung*, 20(4), pp. 491–505. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3224/diskurs.v20i4.04
  • Wester, Nadia/Bossek, Jan Frederik (2025): Inspiration or Distinction. Adolescents and Their Role Models in the Family and on Social Media. In: Schüler Magazine, Special Issue on “Identity,” pp. 16–18.
  • Jäde, Sylvia/Bossek, Jan Frederik (2024): The Transition to Having a Sibling as an Educational Challenge for Parents. In: Frühe Bildung, 2024, 13(4) (Special Issue: “Education and Upbringing in the Family”). pp. 194–200. https://doi.org/10.1026/2191-9186/a000683
  • Bossek, Jan Frederik (2024): “Something has to happen for them to stop this”—Sibling conflicts as a topic in family education. In: Conflict Dynamics, 2024, 13(1) (Special Issue “Conflicts Within Families and Across Generations”). pp. 29–36. https://doi.org/10.5771/2193-0147-2024-1-29

 Articles, Journal Articles (peer-reviewed)

  • Bossek, Jan Frederik (forthcoming): Reconstructive Research on Family Education. The Educational Framework as a Heuristic for the Documentary Analysis of Problem-Centered Interviews. In: Ecarius, Jutta/Euteneuer, Matthias/Krinninger, Dominik/Schierbaum, Anja/Uhlendorff, Uwe (Eds.): What Family Is. Theories of the Family, Conceptual Reflections, and Empirical Approaches in Educational Science. Wiesbaden: Springer VS.
  • Bossek, Jan Frederik/Budde, Jürgen/Schmolke, Rebecca (2025): Editorial: Sibling Socialization in Large Families. In: Bossek, Jan Frederik/Budde, Jürgen/Schmolke, Rebecca (Eds.): Sibling Socialization in Large Families. Special Issue of *Diskurs: Childhood and Youth Research*, 20(4), pp. 447–456. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3224/diskurs.v20i4.01
  • Krüger, Franziska/Bossek, Jan Frederik/Gräfe, Christian/Lokk, Christina/Yıldızlı, Elif (2024): Introduction. Family and Qualitative Family Research in Times of Pandemic—A Retrospective. In: Krüger, Franziska/Bossek, Jan Frederik/Gräfe, Christian/Lokk, Christina/Yıldızlı, Elif (Eds.): Family in Times of Pandemic. On the Interpretation, Negotiation, and Coping with the COVID-19 Crisis within the Family. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa. pp. 7–36.
  • Bossek, Jan Frederik/Ecarius, Jutta (2023): The Role of Parenting in the Family. A Conceptual Approach. In: Schierbaum, Anja/Ecarius, Jutta/Krinninger, Dominik/Uhlendorff, Uwe (Eds.): Family—What’s the Point? An Overview of Conceptual and Theoretical Perspectives in Educational Research on the Family. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. pp. 109–124. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-41352-1_7
  • Schierbaum, Anja/Oliveras, Ronnie/Bossek, Jan Frederik (2023): Education, Quo Vadis? In: Schierbaum, Anja/Oliveras, Ronnie/Bossek, Jan Frederik (2023) (Eds.): Education, Quo Vadis? Developments and Controversies in Educational Research. Weinheim: Beltz Juventa. pp. 7–16.
    https://www.beltz.de/fachmedien/erziehungswissenschaft/produkte/details/48685-erziehung-quo-vadis.html
  • Bossek, Jan Frederik/Wester, Nadia (2022): Report on the conference “Educational Institutions for Adolescents in Crisis?” held June 23–24, 2022, at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. In: Journal of the Sociology of Education and Socialization, 42(4), pp. 431–434. https://doi.org/3262/ZSE2204429
  • Bossek, Jan Frederik (2022): Siblings in Families. In: Ecarius, Jutta/Schierbaum, Anja (eds.): Handbook of the Family. Volume 1: Society, Family Relationships, and Differential Fields. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. pp. 473–491. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-531-19985-6_25
  • Schierbaum, Anja/Bossek, Jan Frederik (2020): Life Stages. In: Sebastian Schinkel/Hösel, Fanny/Köhler, Sina-Mareen/König, Alexandra/Schilling, Elisabeth/Schreiber, Julia/Soremski, Regina/Zschach, Maren (eds.): Time in the Life Course. A Glossary. Bielefeld: Transcript. pp. 191–196. https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-4862-1/zeit-im-lebensverlauf/
  • Oliveras, Ronnie/Bossek, Jan Frederik (2020): Family Education in Late Modernity: The Education of Counseling. In: Thorsten Fuchs, Alena Berg & Anja Schierbaum (Eds.): Youth, Family, and Generations in Transition. Facets of Educational Science. Wiesbaden: Springer VS. pp. 173–189. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-24185-8_11

 Reviews

  • Bossek, Jan Frederik (2020): 50 Years After 1968: Current Studies on Emancipation and Education. In: Windheuser, Jeanette/Kleinau, Elke (Eds.): Yearbook of Educational Gender Studies: Generation and Sexuality (16/2020). Opladen, Berlin & Toronto: Barbara Budrich. pp. 133–140. https://www.budrich-journals.de/index.php/fgfe/article/view/35054

Presentations (all in German)

  • “‘When we drove home, we really cried.’ Findings from a reconstructive study on peer support during military service,” presentation as part of the Ad Hoc Group “The New Military Service: Educational Perspectives on Youth, Intergenerational Justice, and the Disciplinary Self-Conception Against the Background of Current Threat Scenarios” (organized by Dr. Jan Frederik Bossek and Prof. Dr. Sina-Mareen Köhler), 30th Congress of the DGfE in Munich, March 25, 2026 (together with Prof. Dr. Sina-Mareen Köhler)
  • “Reconstructing and Communicating Young People’s Everyday Lives and Shaping of the Future from a Praxeological Perspective,” presentation at the conference “Educational Science and Sustainability—Addressing Resistance. Shaping Futures. Kickoff Conference of the DGfE Working Group “Sustainability or Non-Sustainability and Planetary Futures,” September 29–October 1, 2025, University of Cologne (in collaboration with Prof. Dr. Sina-Mareen Köhler and Nadia Wester)
  • “The Educational Form as a Heuristic for the Empirical Reconstruction of Family Education.
    A Praxeological Further Development and Application of the Concept,” presentation at the conference of the Network for Educational Family Research, June 8, 2024, University of Osnabrück
  • “Sibling Conflicts in Large Families as a Challenge for Family Upbringing,” presentation at the workshop “Sibling Socialization in Large Families,” Oct. 6–7, 23, European University of Flensburg
  • “‘I was worried they’d kill each other in the house’—Crises in Family Education Caused by Violent Sibling Conflicts,” presentation at the annual conference of the Commission for Qualitative Education and Biographical Research (DGfE): “Addressing Crises in Qualitative Education Research—Crisis of Difference(s)—Difference(s) of Crisis?”, September 14–16, 2022, Flensburg European University
  • “‘Well, I think most of the time one of us would start tattling?’” – “Dealing with Sibling Conflicts as a Topic in Family Education: The Case of the Brockmann Family,” presentation at the conference of the Family Research Network (https://www.hf.uni-koeln.de/40288) “Parenting and Education in the Family” at the University of Dortmund, November 14, 2020
  • “Parenting Patterns in Families with Siblings: A Qualitative Study,” presentation at the online orientation day for the Graduate School of the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Cologne, Nov. 13, 2020
  • “Sibling Upbringing and Sibling Relationships. A Qualitative Study on Upbringing in Families with Multiple Children and Its Effects on Sibling Relationships,” presentation at the Dissertation Project Presentation Day of the Graduate School of the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Cologne, April 5, 2019