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White middle-class parents, identities, educational choice and the urban comprehensive school: Dilemmas, ambivalence and moral ambiguity

Crozier, Gill; Reay, Diane; James, David; Jamieson, Fiona; Beedell, Phoebe; Hollingworth, Sumi; Williams, Katya

Authors

Gill Crozier

Diane Reay

David James

Fiona Jamieson

Phoebe Beedell

Sumi Hollingworth

Katya Williams



Abstract

At a time when the public sector and state education (in the United Kingdom) is under threat from the encroaching marketisation policy and private finance initiatives, our research reveals white middle-class parents who in spite of having the financial opportunity to turn their backs on the state system are choosing to assert their commitment to the urban state-run comprehensive school. Our analysis examines the processes of 'thinking and acting otherwise', and demonstrates the nature of the commitment the parents make to the local comprehensive school. However, it also shows the parents' perceptions of the risk involved and their anxieties that these give rise to. The middle-class parents are thus caught in a web of moral ambiguity, dilemmas and ambivalence, trying to perform 'the good/ethical self' while ensuring the 'best' for their children. © 2008 Taylor & Francis.

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date May 1, 2008
Journal British Journal of Sociology of Education
Print ISSN 0142-5692
Electronic ISSN 1465-3346
Publisher Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 29
Issue 3
Pages 261-272
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/01425690801966295
Keywords school choice, white middle-class identities, comprehensive schools, education, urban comprehensive school, parents
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1017838
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01425690801966295


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