Cultural Politics Behind Middle-Class Parental Choices of Teachers in a Multiethnic Urban Elementary School

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 31
  In Roundtable Session: Family Matters: Parental Involvement in Education Networking and Decision Making

Abstract

The cultural politics of school choice has been intensively debated, but there has been less focus on teacher choices that are also integral to the neoliberal agenda. This two-year-case study occurred in a high-poverty multi-ethnic school in the Eastern United States and data were collected through observations and in-depth interviews with key stakeholders. Through integration policies the school gained a critical mass of middle-class parents two years prior to the data collection in 2007-2008. Focus in this paper is on parental requests to transfer their children between classrooms from the same teacher and how ideas of cultural matching between teachers and students and disposition, identity and status shaped what kind of options were available to these parents and their children.

Authors

• Berglind Ros Magnusdottir, University of Iceland

• Brynja Elisabeth Halldórsdóttir Gudjonsson, University of Iceland