Safety in numbers? Middle-class parents and social mix in London primary schools

Abstract

Research into parents' secondary-school choices suggests that many middle-class parents are keen to secure a middle-class peer group for their children. This article reports the findings of a small-scale, qualitative study into whether a similar phenomenon exists at primary-school level and, if so, why. In-depth interviews were conducted with 56 middle-class parents of pre-school children in inner London. Respondents often had contradictory impulses. Nearly all liked the idea of a socially mixed school but many associated the 'wrong' mix with various risks. Some of these perceived risks are familiar from previous studies. Others are less familiar, such as the fear among respondents that they themselves might not 'fit in' at their children's school. The types of intake which respondents preferred fell into three overlapping categories: children from 'pro-school' families, children at a similar level of achievement to respondents' own children and 'people like us'. Respondents' judgements about whether children and families fell into these categories were based in part on ideas about class, ethnicity and language. Respondents gravitated toward schools where most children were perceived to come from middle-class, white, English-speaking backgrounds. The article argues that attitudes towards children learning English as an additional language need to receive greater attention in future research.

Dealing with Diversity: Middle-class Family Households and the Issue of ‘Black’ and ‘White’ Schools in Amsterdam

“…In the UK, this often implies the 'gentrification' of public working-class schools with the aim of creating safety in numbers (Vowden, 2012). This active shaping of the social and academic conditions of schooling is a relatively risky strategy that does not guarantee the reproduction of privilege.…”

Encounters with diversity: Children’s friendships and parental responses

“…Several researchers have identified parental concerns about their children potentially sharing school space with raced and classed others (e.g. Ball, 2003;Boterman, 2013;Butler and Hamnett, 2011;Byrne, 2006;Byrne and De Tona, 2014;Reay et al, 2011;Vowden, 2012). Drawing largely on interviews with middle class parents, this body of work broadly argues that whilst middle class parents living in urban areas perceive diversity and social mix in school populations as positive in the abstract, the limits of what is understood as an 'acceptable' degree of mix are variously defined, but often exclude working class populations.…”

Distance, education and inequality

“…This mostly applies to secondary schools because there is still a greater tendency for children to attend their nearest primary school although this is now changing, particularly in areas of high demand such as in many areas of London (Vowden 2012). We consider briefly the ways in which parents choose and in which pupils are allocated school places elsewhere in Europe and North America before returning to a more detailed analysis of the way in which the allocation process works in practice, drawing from research we have undertaken in East London.…”