A parental school choice misery: Middle class parents’ dilemma in choosing a primary school in Berlin’s multi-ethnic neighborhoods

Q3 Social Sciences

Journal of Pedagogy Pub Date : 2020-06-01 DOI:10.2478/jped-2020-0003

Tanja Mayer, V. Geist, Vera S. Pohl, J. Schwarz, Thomas Koinzer

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引用次数: 3

Abstract

Abstract To follow up on research conducted in several countries, in this paper, we look at the dilemmas middle-class parents face of being “good parents” by choosing the “best” school with a milieu-related environment for their child versus being “good citizens” by choosing a “local” public school with a large proportion of students from a working-class or migrant background. Analyzing semi-structured interviews with parents, the paper explores whether and how parents in Germany’s capital city of Berlin refer to this dilemma concerning primary school choice and how they resolve it and justify their decision. The parents interviewed applied strategies in deciding to be “good parents” or “good citizens” or at least to make it easier to solve the dilemma. All the strategies presented in other studies can be found in our sample as well. In addition, we identified two more parental strategies: the strategy of downward comparison and the strategy of choosing a private school. It is notable that the perceived proportion of children with a migrant background in the neighborhood played a major role in relation to the dilemma and the strategies chosen.

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父母选择学校的痛苦:中产阶级父母在柏林多民族社区选择小学的困境

为了跟进在几个国家进行的研究，本文研究了中产阶级父母面临的两难选择:为孩子选择与环境相关的“最佳”学校，作为“好父母”;为孩子选择一所拥有大量工人阶级或移民背景的“当地”公立学校，作为“好公民”。通过对父母的半结构化访谈，本文探讨了德国首都柏林的父母是否以及如何涉及小学选择的这种困境，以及他们如何解决这种困境并证明他们的决定是合理的。接受采访的父母在决定成为“好父母”或“好公民”或至少使其更容易解决困境时运用了策略。在其他研究中提出的所有策略也可以在我们的样本中找到。此外，我们还发现了另外两种家长策略:向下比较策略和选择私立学校策略。值得注意的是，社区中具有移民背景的儿童的感知比例在困境和选择的策略方面发挥了重要作用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Pedagogy Social Sciences-Education

CiteScore

1.10

自引率

0.00%

发文量

审稿时长

20 weeks

期刊介绍： The Journal of Pedagogy (JoP) publishes outstanding educational research from a wide range of conceptual, theoretical, and empirical traditions. Diverse perspectives, critiques, and theories related to pedagogy – broadly conceptualized as intentional and political teaching and learning across many spaces, disciplines, and discourses – are welcome, from authors seeking a critical, international audience for their work. All manuscripts of sufficient complexity and rigor will be given full review. In particular, JoP seeks to publish scholarship that is critical of oppressive systems and the ways in which traditional and/or “commonsensical” pedagogical practices function to reproduce oppressive conditions and outcomes. Scholarship focused on macro, micro and meso level educational phenomena are welcome. JoP encourages authors to analyse and create alternative spaces within which such phenomena impact on and influence pedagogical practice in many different ways, from classrooms to forms of public pedagogy, and the myriad spaces in between. Manuscripts should be written for a broad, diverse, international audience of either researchers and/or practitioners. Accepted manuscripts will be available free to the public through JoP’s open-access policies, as well as featured in Elsevier''s Scopus indexing service, ERIC, and others.