Utilizing Agency to Frame School Choice More Equitably: One Student's Experiences Creating New Chance Transfers

• In Event: 69.056 - Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: 69.056-6 - Resilience and Power From the Periphery

Abstract

This study explores a bilingual Mexican-American student's experiences transferring schools. School choice researchers have studied school transfers utilizing dichotomized constructs focused on the cause of a transfer: strategic and reactive transfers (Fiel, Haskins, & Turley, 2013). While some research has explored individual students' reasons for transferring (Rhodes, 2008), few studies have captured the complexity of student transfers. This case study uses the lenses of structure and agency to examine the outcome of one student's school transfers. Findings identify the importance of moving away from the cause of a transfer and utilizing a new term, new chance transfers, to capture both the agentive actions of students and the possible positive outcomes of transferring.

Author

• Jennifer Kinser-Traut, The University of Arizona