Wenn durch Politiken Familien zur ‚freien Schulwahl‘ einer spezifischen Einzelschule aufgefordert werden und Einzelschulen sich dafür als Optionen anzubieten haben, entstehen schulwahlbezogene Wettbewerbssituationen. Diese sind in einer Vielzahl internationaler Kontexte beobachtbar und gewinnen sowohl im Primar- als auch im Sekundarbereich in Deutschland an Bedeutung. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde die schulwahlbezogene Wettbewerbssituation in einem von Armut geprägten Berliner Bezirk nach der zum Schuljahr 2010/11 erfolgten Berliner Schulstrukturreform untersucht und im Kontext einschlägiger deutschsprachiger und internationaler Forschung analysiert. Insgesamt lassen vielfältigen Forschungsergebnisse, die mit dem Phänomen schulwahlbezogener Wettbewerbssituationen in Verbindung zu bringen sind, daran zweifeln, dass die mit einer zunehmenden Wettbewerbsorientierung im Bereich schulischer Bildung verbundenen Hoffnungen auf Qualitätssteigerung und verbesserte Chancengleichheit erfüllt werden. Darauf deuten auch die Ergebnisse des in dieser Arbeit dargestellten ethnographischen Forschungsprojektes hin. Die Arbeit erweitert die bisher in Deutschland nur in sehr geringem Umfang vorliegenden qualitativ arbeitenden Fallstudien zu schulwahlbezogenen Wettbewerbssituationen um eine bisher noch fehlende, die Folgen einer aktuellen Schulstrukturreform in den Blick nehmende Studie. Mit dem in dieser Forschungsarbeit entwickelten Konzept der Passungs-Distanz-Konstruktion liegt der Fokus auf der Sozialität der Schulwahl. Das Konzept dient zur Analyse eines zentralen sozialen Mechanismus, der in der untersuchten schulwahlbezogenen Wettbewerbssituation in Berlin erkennbar ist und Anknüpfungspunkte bietet für weitere lokale Fallstudien und Analysen ähnlicher Schwerpunktsetzung. / When choice policies are used to encourage families to choose a specific school and individual schools have to offer themselves as options for this, school choice related competitive situations arise. These can be observed in a variety of international contexts and are now gaining importance in Germany both in primary and secondary education. This thesis examines the competitive situation of school choice in an underprivileged Berlin district following the 2010/11 Berlin school structure reform and analyses it in the context of relevant German language and international research. All in all, the diverse research results that can be associated with the phenomenon of competitive situations related to school choice raise doubts as to whether the educational policy objectives of improvement in quality and equal opportunities associated with an increased competitive orientation in the field of school education will be fulfilled. This is also indicated by the results of the ethnographic research project, the course and results of which were presented in this paper. This work augments the qualitative case studies on school choice related competitive situations that have so far been available in Germany to only a very limited extent, using the example of a Berlin district, to include a study in the most populous German city that has not previously been carried out and that focuses on the consequences of a current school structure reform. With the concept of the fit-distance construction developed on the basis of this example as a central social mechanism recognisable in the school choice related competitive situation under study, it also offers starting points for further local case studies and analysis of similar focal points.

The study is made in Nacka, a suburb of the capital of Sweden, Stockholm, and focuses on “the parental school choice" that takes place when children start in first grade at the age of six.  New differences in the number of pupils attending various municipal schools have appeared after reforms in the early 1990s giving parents free choice of elementary school for their children. Some schools are located in areas where most children have a middle class background, while others are placed in less attractive surroundings where the parents have a lower educational status, and are more often immigrants. Parents living in the latter kind of surroundings can now send their children to schools further off, but located in more attractive areas. This leads to some schools get an increasing number of pupils and others gets a decreasing. The income of schools in Sweden is largely based on the number of pupils; the idea behind the reform is that schools with a good educational quality should be rewarded by the system. But other factors also influence the parent’s choice; bad rumors, good reputations, the number of children with immigrant background, the physical surroundings and social atmosphere where the school is located, and maybe also ethnical prejudice. My study concerns the grounds upon which school the parents choose the first school for their children in a part of Nacka municipality. The study is based on staff interviews from a school located in a socio-economically disfavored area as well as interviews and questionnaire surveys with parents having a choice between the nearby school and a school located in a more wealthy area. I found that the parent’s primary criterion when choosing schools is still proximity. When looking at the group that has opted out the most nearby schools however, the reputation of the local school – the spreading of bad rumors – proved to be a major influence. An example from the answers I received is the following: I chose a school based on the number of immigrants in it, my child should have a safe schooling, it’s said that schools with a lot of immigrants have an atmosphere that is much tougher, I’ve heard from others, that the “apartment complex” school is a tougher school to attend. (Interview Lisa, verbal, March 2010) Many parents obviously prefer not to have their children attend a school located in a socio-economic disfavored area with a large low-income and/or immigrant population. They are worried that their children will have trouble even getting the final grade from primary school, which is a precondition to entering the secondary, “gymnasium” level.

Abstract The disquiet around parent-school relationships is the focus of this study. During transitioning to high school, the boundaries around this relationship changes. Few studies have addressed these changes, particularly from parents’ perspectives. It is parents’ voices which are central to this study. This dissertation uses the standpoint of parents, which is often absent or silent in educational literature and research. Within a critical and constructivist paradigm, and influenced by Institutional Ethnography, two elementary schools (divergent in race, social class, ethnicity and immigrant status) and one high school are the sites for interviews with 14 parents and 13 educators. 11 parents were re-interviewed after their children entered high school. Four questions were addresses: How has parent involvement come to be understood? How is the parent-school relationship experienced by parents and educators? How and why are decisions made around the transition and school choice process? Do parents’ perceptions align/vary from those of educators? Based on historically constructed notions and assumptions, parent involvement is usually understood as a visible and public demonstration of appropriate and caring parenting ignoring interactions outside of the public’s gaze. Illustrated through Parent Council membership, parent involvement is gendered, classed, culturally related and race, ethnic and immigrant status specific. Some parents had more social, cultural, economic and emotional capital to bring to the transition process, while others were marginalized and had to rely on/trust the education system. School and Board policies and procedures were examined and their varied affects on parents’ experiences and choices analysed. Educators assisted in disseminating assumptions around parent-school relationships and contributed to inequitable parent knowledge, partially as a result of too little training. By examining social, economic and cultural positioning of parents within local school communities, positive parent-school relationships can be nurtured, which political pundits and educationalists have failed to accomplish. During transitioning, organization and social discontinuities contributed to parent and school disconnects and constructed borderlands in the parent-child-school relationship. This study evidenced the fragility of the parent-school relationship, especially during this vulnerable time for parents and thus, reflective questions are presented in hope of initiating a crucial conversation in local school communities.

Abstract The disquiet around parent-school relationships is the focus of this study. During transitioning to high school, the boundaries around this relationship changes. Few studies have addressed these changes, particularly from parents’ perspectives. It is parents’ voices which are central to this study. This dissertation uses the standpoint of parents, which is often absent or silent in educational literature and research. Within a critical and constructivist paradigm, and influenced by Institutional Ethnography, two elementary schools (divergent in race, social class, ethnicity and immigrant status) and one high school are the sites for interviews with 14 parents and 13 educators. 11 parents were re-interviewed after their children entered high school. Four questions were addresses: How has parent involvement come to be understood? How is the parent-school relationship experienced by parents and educators? How and why are decisions made around the transition and school choice process? Do parents’ perceptions align/vary from those of educators? Based on historically constructed notions and assumptions, parent involvement is usually understood as a visible and public demonstration of appropriate and caring parenting ignoring interactions outside of the public’s gaze. Illustrated through Parent Council membership, parent involvement is gendered, classed, culturally related and race, ethnic and immigrant status specific. Some parents had more social, cultural, economic and emotional capital to bring to the transition process, while others were marginalized and had to rely on/trust the education system. School and Board policies and procedures were examined and their varied affects on parents’ experiences and choices analysed. Educators assisted in disseminating assumptions around parent-school relationships and contributed to inequitable parent knowledge, partially as a result of too little training. By examining social, economic and cultural positioning of parents within local school communities, positive parent-school relationships can be nurtured, which political pundits and educationalists have failed to accomplish. During transitioning, organization and social discontinuities contributed to parent and school disconnects and constructed borderlands in the parent-child-school relationship. This study evidenced the fragility of the parent-school relationship, especially during this vulnerable time for parents and thus, reflective questions are presented in hope of initiating a crucial conversation in local school communities.

This is a study on how a group of ten pupils choose their upper secondary schools (gymnasium). All pupils are ninth graders in a middle school in Husby which is a suburb of Stockholm. Like the big majority of Husby citizens, they all have immigrant backgrounds and their time in Sweden varies; some are born here while others are born abroad and migrated later with their parents. My aim was to understand their upper secondary school choices through own and their parents’ "cultural capital". I based my study on Bourdieu’s theory on social reproduction and I used his terminology and definitions of cultural capital, interest, field, habitus and strategies. I investigated if and in what way these children follow the tracks of their parents in terms of future educational and working plans but even in terms of common cultural and leisure activities and the way they affect their upper secondary school choice. The Swedish upper secondary school is divided in 18 different specializations, 12 technical and 6 theoretical, respectively. In the first, the pupils are prepared for a technical profession and in the second, they prepare for further academic studies. I was interested in finding out the pupils’ strategies in fulfilling their educational and professional dreams in connection with their choice of upper secondary specialization and their parents’ educational and cultural interests and backgrounds. I used a qualitative method, specifically interviews. I transcribed the interviews and I tried to relate what was said to Bourdieu’s theory. I was mostly inspired by the phenomenological approach where the interviewer avoids taking position and focuses on the message the person being interviewed tries to communicate. Most families in my study have a relatively law cultural capital and even though some have had academic studies and high status professions in their home countries they have had jobs that did not match their education level in Sweden. Most children aim high in the educational rank and especially those who come from high educated parents seem to have a better knowledge of the Swedish educational system and how to better move into it.

[pt] O estudo de natureza qualitativa e interpretativa procurou investigar e comparar os significados que famílias de diferentes classes socioeconômicas atribuem à educação e à escolarização dos filhos, e como isso influencia o orçamento doméstico das famílias. Foram realizadas ao todo 76 entrevistas com pais e mães de 49 famílias de dois estratos sociais distintos: nova classe média (NCM) e classe média alta. O grupo da NCM foi ainda subdividido entre famílias que matriculam seus filhos em escolas privadas e famílias com filhos matriculados em escolas públicas, a fim de investigar diferenças dentro da nova classe média. Ao todo, quatro grupos distintos de famílias foram identificadas. Os dados indicam haver valorização em relação à educação em praticamente todas as famílias, mas de formas e intensidades diferentes, e guiadas por lógicas distintas. Mais importante, essas diferentes lógicas e significados orientam de forma substantiva a hierarquia de gastos da família. Dentro da NCM, prevalece a lógica da educação e dos diplomas escolares como instrumento para competição no mercado de trabalho. Contudo, há diferenças entre os grupos da NCM estudados. O primeiro grupo, famílias da NCM que matriculam os filhos em estabelecimentos de ensino particulares de baixo custo dos bairros dos subúrbios da cidade buscam uma estratégia de evitação de convívio de seus filhos com a cultura desviante da favela. Os gastos com educação são consideráveis, mas não há uma grande mobilização pelas melhores oportunidades educacionais para os filhos. O segundo grupo, formado predominantemente por famílias da NCM moradoras das favelas que investem na educação dos filhos, caracterizam-se por uma forte mobilização em torno da escolarização de seus filhos, na crença da educação de qualidade como ferramenta de mobilização social. Os gastos escolares assumem uma enorme centralidade nos orçamentos domésticos e grandes sacrifícios são feitos. O terceiro grupo, famílias com filhos em escolas públicas, moradoras das favelas cariocas, enxergam a escola e atividades complementares como importantes instrumentos para manter as mentes de seus filhos ocupadas e assim evitar as tentações do crime e de outras atividades desviantes que ocorrem no seio das comunidades onde habitam. Embora nessas famílias os gastos monetários com educação sejam bem mais reduzidos, a manutenção dos filhos na escola até a formatura no ensino médio, muitas vezes sem a exigência de se trabalhar em paralelo, representa um investimento considerável, na forma de abdicação de receitas do trabalho dos filhos. Por fim, nas famílias de classe média alta aqui investigadas, a educação é altamente valorizada, mas as lógicas que regem os projetos de escolarização dos filhos são bem mais plurais, e vão além da visão instrumental da escola, incluindo também lógicas socializadoras e identitárias. Os gastos com educação e atividades extracurriculares são elevadíssimos e atingem proporções altas dos orçamentos domésticos, mas raramente representam sacrifícios consideráveis, já que as rendas discrecionárias dessas famílias são relativamente bem mais elevadas. Uma conjunção de fatores estruturais e culturais estão na base para explicações tentativas para as diferentes visões e lógicas do projeto escolar dos filhos destas famílias. / [en] This qualitative and interpretative study sought to investigate and compare the meanings that families of different socioeconomic backgrounds attribute to the education and schooling of their children, and how this influences the families household budget. A total of 76 interviews were conducted with parents of 49 families from two distinct social strata: the new middle class (NMC) and the upper middle class. The NMC group was further subdivided into families enrolling their children in private and public schools in order to investigate differences within the new middle class. Altogether, four distinct groups of families emerged. The data indicate that almost all families seem to value education, but in different forms and intensities and guided by different logics. More importantly, these different logics and meanings substantively guide the household s spending hierarchy. Within the NMC, the logic of education and school diplomas as an instrument for competition in the labor market prevails. However, there are differences between the NMC groups studied. The first group, NMC families who enroll their children in private low-cost schools in suburban neighborhoods, seek a strategy of avoiding their children s conviviality with the deviant culture of the slums. Expenditures on education are considerable, but there is no great mobilization for the best educational opportunities for their children. The second group, formed predominantly by NMC slums families that invest in their children s education, are characterized by a strong mobilization around the schooling of their children, in the belief of quality education as a tool for social mobilization. School expenditures take on a huge centrality in household budgets and great sacrifices are made towards their children s education project. The third group, families with children in public schools, mainly living in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, see school and complementary activities as important instruments to keep the minds of their children occupied and thus avoid the temptations of crime and other deviant behaviors that occur within the communities where they live. Although monetary expenditures on education are much lower in these families, the maintenance of children in school up to high school graduation, often with tolerance from parents for the requirement to work in parallel to their studies, represents a considerable investment in the form of abdication of additional labor income to the household. Finally, in the upper-middle-class families investigated here, education is highly valued, but the logic that governs the schooling of their children is much more pluralistic, and goes beyond the instrumental vision of the school, including also socializing and identity logics. Expenditures on education and extracurricular activities are very high and reach high proportions of household budgets, but rarely represent considerable sacrifices, since the discretionary incomes of these families are relatively much higher. A conjunction of structural and cultural factors are the basis for tentative explanations for the different views and logics of the schooling project of the children of these families.

This qualitative case study focused on how school leaders’ understandings of (dis)ability were implicated in decision-making and affected student (dis)enrollment in Florida’s Voluntary Prekindergarten Program (VPK). More specifically it explored how leaders in private VPK programs invoked conceptions of normality, and subsequently abnormality, during decision-making processes for student (dis)enrollment. Combining a critical poststructuralist approach (critical disability studies, critical policy analysis), decision-making on (dis)enrollment was contextualized within the current policy ecology. This policy ecology was framed as an historical development of policies regarding preschool for children with and without disabilities in a marketplace shaped by the convergence of federal, state, and local policy, which tended to be based on deficit-oriented perspectives of disability that functioned to (re)constructed what was understood as (dis)ability. Further, findings focused on how policy, market, and VPK leaders’ understanding of (dis)ability influenced decision-making rationales and outcomes affecting (dis)enrolled students. Findings indicated their sense of identity impacted their interpretation of and reaction to program polices, local market pressures and their construction of the “good consumer”—a parent/child dyad prepared for rigor and the exhibition of self-control. Reciprocity emerged as a theme and suggested good consumers reinforced VPK leaders’ desired identity. In addition, VPK leaders’ justified enrollment and disenrollment decisions within a continuum of exchanges that occurred between consumers and themselves. Leaders who embraced service or spiritual based leadership practices tended to be more inclusive of children with diverse needs. Implications for future research should address 1) how VPK leaders include children with a range of abilities in their (pre)schools, 2) examine parents’ decision-making practices about their child’s (dis)enrollment in VPK centers, 3) policy clarification at the intersection of IDEA, ADA, and VPK, and 4) explore how local education agencies and private preschools can build infrastructure to support the inclusion of children with diverse learning needs in VPK centers. Such research can shed light on the complexity of decision-making with respect to enrollment for publicly-funded voucher programs on the private VPK market and how those decisions function to (re)shape discourses of normality in early childhood.

TITLE: Reasons for choosing French as a second foreign language AUTHOR: Bc. Jana Šindelářová DEPARTMENT: Department of Education SUPERVISOR: PhDr. RNDr. Hana Voňková, Ph.D. et Ph.D. ABSTRACT: The aim of this thesis is to find out why Czech secondary school students chose to study French as their second foreign language and how satisfied they are with this decision. The theoretical part concerns itself with teaching languages in European schools and in the Czech Republic with the focus on French language. Furthermore, it deals with the status of French language both in the world and in the Czech Republic, and with the benefits the knowledge of French language brings. The empirical part of this thesis depicts a research conducted by means of questionnaire construction. The sample was 100 students from the lower and 163 students from the higher stage of secondary schools called "gymnasium" (grammar school) in Prague. (185 girls and 78 boys) The research shows that students chose the foreign language mainly themselves and the most frequent reason for choosing French was that they liked the language in general. The second reason was that they liked the accent and number three that they did not want to study the other language taught in their school. Furthermore, they chose French language in order to widen their...

本研究指在探討學校型態實驗教育學校之家長選擇權與學校滿意度，採用「學校型態實驗教育家長選擇權與學校滿意度之調查問卷」，以臺灣地區學校型態實驗教育學校之家長為研究對象，有效問卷共564份。資料回收以描述性統計、因素分析、項目分析、交叉分析、皮爾森積差相關、獨立樣本t考驗、單因子變異數分析、迴歸分析等統計方法進行分析，其研究結果如下： 一、 學校型態實驗教育學校之家長的入學資訊來源重要性依序為親身觀察學校、依孩子學習狀況與取向共同討論、學校辦理實驗教育情形、參與該校活動等為主要參考訊息。 二、 家長選擇權首重為學習與適應，接著為教育專業及行政與環境。 三、 家長對學校滿意高低依序為教師教學與學生表現、行政服務與家長參與。 四、 不同教育程度、家庭收入、職業、學區、是否為轉學生的學校型態實驗教育家長，在家長選擇權的知覺上有差異。 五、 不同教育程度、家庭收入、職業、學區的學校型態實驗教育家長，在對學校滿意度的態度上有差異。 六、 學校型態實驗教育的家長在家長選擇權與對學校滿意度具有高度正相關。 七、 學校型態實驗教育學校的家長在家長選擇權對學校滿意度具有預測力。 根據研究結果，對學校型態實驗教育之實務、規劃、未來研究提出相關建議。 / The purpose of this research was to understand a study of school choice and satisfaction survey of school-based experimental education. “Questionnaire of school choice and satisfaction survey of school-based experimental education” was delivered to the parents, whose children were studied in of school-based experimental education in Taiwan. There were 564 valied questionnaires. Statistical techniques used to analyze the collected data are descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson’s product-moment correlation and multiple regression analysis methods. The results were as follows: 1. As to admission information, parents put an emphasis on four factors, the degree in order is: personal observation, according to the child learning situation and orientation to discuss, view on school-based experimental, participate in school activities. 2. As to school choice, the degree in order is: student learning and adaptation, school education concept and teacher 's teaching, school administration and parental communication and environmental equipment. 3. As to satisfaction survey of school-based experimental education, in descending order is: teachers' teaching and student learning, school administration and parent-teacher communication. 4. Parents with different background showed significant differences on decision making for choosing school. 5. Parents with different background showed significant differences on school satisfaction. 6. There was significant canonical correlation between decision making for choosing school and school satisfaction. 7. The choosing school variables can significantly predict the parent’s satisfaction of school. The research findings and suggestions can serve as reference for educational authorities, elementary school principals and subsequent related studies.

Public school choice education policy attempts to create an education marketplace. Although school choice research has focused on the parent role in the school choice process, little is known about parents served by low-performing schools. Following market theory, students attending low-performing schools should be the primary students attempting to use school choice policy to access high performing schools rather than moving to a better school. However, students remain in these low-performing schools. This study took place in Miami-Dade County, which offers a wide variety of school choice options through charter schools, magnet schools, and open-choice schools. This dissertation utilized a mixed-methods design to examine the decision-making process and school choice options utilized by the parents of students served by low-performing elementary schools in Miami-Dade County. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with the parents of students served by low-performing schools. Binary logistic regression models were fitted to the data to compare the demographic characteristics, academic achievement and distance from alternative schooling options between transfers and non-transfers. Multinomial logistic regression models were fitted to the data to evaluate how demographic characteristics, distance to transfer school, and transfer school grade influenced the type of school a transfer student chose. A geographic analysis was conducted to determine how many miles students lived from alternative schooling options and the miles transfer students lived away from their transfer school. The findings of the interview data illustrated that parents’ perceived needs are not being adequately addressed by state policy and county programs. The statistical analysis found that students from higher socioeconomic social groups were not more likely to transfer than students from lower socioeconomic social groups. Additionally, students who did transfer were not likely to end up at a high achieving school. The findings of the binary logistic regression demonstrated that transfer students were significantly more likely to live near alternative school options.