Opportunity Hoarding Across Context: Contribution to Theory and Practice

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Sunday 9:45 am - Gold 2
  In Roundtable Session: Contested Opportunities: Power, Place, and Educational Justice

Abstract

This study examines how place shapes parents’ opportunity hoarding practices by comparing four middle schools in Israel across socioeconomic and diversity contexts. Drawing on interviews with 63 parents, interviews with school staff, and observations of parents’ events, we explore how localized perceptions of opportunity, school choice, and social composition influence parents’ efforts to secure advantages for their children. In heterogeneous, lower-middle-class communities with school choice, parents actively pursued selective programs to isolate their children from perceived disadvantage. In contrast, parents in homogeneous, middle-upper-class settings focused on enrichment and tutoring, showing less interest in school-based programs. Findings highlight that hoarding is driven by parents’ perceptions of place-based risk and competition and expand existing U.S.-based frameworks on educational inequality.

Authors

• Idit Fast, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Yariv Feniger, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

• Shira Klimor Maman, Bar Ilan University