‘The best school for my child?’ Positions, dispositions and inequalities in school choice in the city of Barcelona

Abstract

This article deals with the discourses and practices employed by families involved in school choice processes in the city of Barcelona (Spain). It draws upon a study conducted by the authors in 2008/09, and it is based on surveys completed by a representative sample made up of 3245 families, as well as 60 in-depth interviews with families with children at the age of commencing universal pre-primary education (three years old). Firstly, the article focuses on the types of concerns and pressures that families experience when choosing a school for their child. Secondly, we analyse the level and type of knowledge that parents have at their disposal about the field of school choice, as well as how they use and benefit from available information channels. Finally, we identify three unequal positions in which families find themselves when negotiating the field of school choice: ‘maximising’, ‘guaranteeing’ and ‘displaced’. These positions are, in turn, directly related to families’ locations in the social structure, which are also unequal.

Keywords:

• school choice
• school access
• parental education
• educational inequalities
• family strategies

Acknowledgements

The project ‘School Choice Regulations, Strategies and Practices: Inequalities in School Choice in Barcelona’ was financed by the Jaume Bofill Foundation. The production of this article was possible thanks to supplementary funding received from the project ‘Regímenes escolares y equidad educativa. Una aproximación comparativa apoyada en encuestas internacionales y estudios de caso’ (directed by Miguel Ángel Alegre), granted by the Ministry of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación del Gobierno de España) (Proyectos I+D+i, CSO2009-09954).

Notes

1. In Spain, the pre-primary stage is not compulsory but it is ‘universal’, and attendance rates are almost 100%. This stage comprises the academic years of P3, P4, and P5, which correspond to three, four, and five years of age, respectively.

2. With this expression, the authors refer to the informal sense of the specific information gathered in relation to concerns about shared interests and values.

3. In a similar way for the case of Ireland, Lynch and Moran have documented how the convertibility of economic capital permits middle-class parents to create an alternative educational market in the private sector to help secure their children’s future class (Lynch and Moran 2006).