The politics of school choice in two countries with large private‐dependent sectors (Spain and Chile): family strategies, collective action and lobbying

Abstract

In many countries choice of school is an increasing concern for families and governments. In Spain and Chile, it is also associated with a long‐standing political cleavage on the regulation of large sectors of private‐dependent schools. This article analyses both the micro‐ and the macro‐politics of choice in these two countries, where low‐status 15‐year‐old students record a significant segregation. At the micro level, some evidence is provided that not only middle‐class skilful choosers but also the political representatives of private‐dependent schools manage to pursue their interests drawing on economic, social and cultural capital. At the macro level, evidence also shows that the lobbies defending private‐dependent schools can use and maintain these power resources. However, in some episodes collective action is an effective power resource for those who campaign in favour of a stricter regulation of these schools, but its influence is much difficult to maintain for longer periods.

Keywords:

• class
• sociology
• school choice
• class conflict
• politics
• comparative education

Acknowledgement

This article is a product of Project EDUTODOS, funded by the Ministry of Science – ESP (ref EDU2008‐00816).

Notes

1. By reading the work of the authors in the context of wider discussions on school choice in these countries, the article relies on comparable qualitative analyses of choice strategies and collective action as well as on quantitative analyses of segregation on each country. In Spain, qualitative studies include samples of interviews and focus groups carried out in Catalonia, Madrid and Castilla‐La Mancha since the 1990s (Bernal 2005; Rambla 2006; Benito and González 2007; Olmedo and Santa Cruz 2008). These are complemented by an estimation of the trend of indexes in Catalonia (Valiente and Rambla 2009) as well as multi‐level models based on census (Valiente 2009) and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) (Alegre and Ferrer 2010; Escardíbul and Villarroya 2009) data. In Chile, qualitative studies include samples of interviews carried out in the last decade (Almonacid, Luzón, and Torres 2008), some of them with families and head teachers in the areas of Santiago and Rancagua (Frías, forthcoming) as well as estimation of indexes and multivariate analyses of local segregation patterns (Valenzuela, Belleï, and De los Rios 2008).

2. A further comment might clarify the value of this comparative statement. Both Rambla (2006) and Frías (forthcoming) report on similar semi‐focused interviews with parents in Spain and Chile, but it is only in Chile that some working‐class interviewees were quite explicit about their adaptation to the cost of private‐dependent schools. This unexpected finding is the basis of our comparative account, and certainly a source of many more research questions. In our view, there is enough evidence to argue that this strategy has not been so visible in Spain so far: although for the last decade parental choice strategies have been analysed on the grounds of interviews (Bernal 2005; Rambla 2006; Olmedo and Santa Cruz 2008) and focus groups (Rambla 2006; Benito and González 2007), this adaptation of preferences has not been observed. Certainly, more detailed analyses of local pro‐choice experiences could eventually find it out, if we are right to understand that explicit competition might produce this sort of incentives.