Children's daily travel to school in Johannesburg-Soweto, South Africa: geography and school choice in the Birth to Twenty cohort study

Abstract

This paper has two aims: to explore approaches to the measurement of children's daily travel to school in a context of limited geospatial data availability and to provide data regarding school choice and distance travelled to school in Soweto-Johannesburg, South Africa. The paper makes use of data from the Birth to Twenty cohort study (n ¼ 1428) to explore three different approaches to estimating school choice and travel to school. First, straight-line distance between home and school is calculated. Second, census geography is used to determine whether a child's home and school fall in the same area. Third, distance data are used to determine whether a child attends the nearest school. Each of these approaches highlights a different aspect of mobility, and all provide valuable data. Overall, primaryschool-aged children in Soweto-Johannesburg are shown to be travelling substantial distances to school on a daily basis. Over a third travel more than 3 km one way to school, 60% attend schools outside of the suburb in which they live, and only 18% attend their nearest school. These data provide evidence for high levels of school choice in Johannesburg-Soweto, and that families and children are making substantial investments in pursuit of high-quality educational opportunities. Additionally, these data suggest that two patterns of school choice are evident: one pattern involving travel of substantial distances and requiring a higher level of financial investment and a second pattern involving choice between more local schools, requiring less travel and a more limited financial investment.

Subjective Well-Being and Gratitude Among South African Adolescents

“…The schools included in the current study were located in suburban, middle-class neighborhoods, which predominantly served White adolescents before 1994 but which are now racially integrated. These schools are also considered to be functioning better than schools in less advantaged areas (Spaull, 2015) and are often attended by learners from the latter areas (de Kadt, Norris, Fleisch, Richter, & Alvanides, 2014). It is possible that Black adolescents are more satisfied with school because of perceiving it as better than alternative options previously accessible to them.…”

Theorising cohortness: (Mis)Fitting into student geographies

“…Some of the most wide‐ranging work (but of less direct relevance here), is the longstanding use of “cohort studies” across a range of disciplines in a methodological sense. Cohort studies afford often quantitative, longitudinal, large‐scale, demographic studies of particular birth cohorts, in order to assess synchronous and diachronous similarities and differences in health, attitudes, mobilities, and far more besides (for recent geographical examples, see de Kadt et al., ; Camara & Garcia‐Roman, ).…”

Schooling choice in South Africa: The limits of qualifications and the politics of race, class and symbolic power

“…Evidence for this traveling comes from a number of sources. One Soweto-Johannesburg quantitative study found that only 18% of learners attend their nearest school (De Kadt et al, 2014). Qualitative studies in Cape Town (Fataar, 2010), Johannesburg (Bell and McKay, 2011), and Durban (Hunter, 2010) found high levels of school children traveling.…”