"How, Where, and Why to Educate My Child?" Choosing Schools in the Era of Ed Reform

• In Event: 49.062 - Family–School Partnerships: Critical Perspectives

Abstract

Through a series of in-depth interviews with mothers and primary guardians of school-age children, this paper unpacks perspectives of school choice through a discussion of the moves and choices parents make, as well as the resources they engage, to provide educational opportunity for their children amid perceived limited possibilities. Informed by the work of Wilson-Cooper (2005), parents’ choice-making is analyzed as "positioned" choice. Addressing the multiple ways parents activate agency and resistance through their positioned perspectives, the findings of this study reveal how parents’ decisions about their children’s education are powerfully shaped by race, place, and the memories of their own childhood schooling.

Authors

• Jessica Sarah Powell, Southern Connecticut State University

• Rebecca Page Johnson, Elmira College