Description
Book SynopsisHow do parents consider questions of race and class when they are choosing secondary schools for their children and does it differ from place to place?
All in the mix: Race, class and school choice explores parents'' experience of negotiating school choice in particular places and how this talk is racialised and classed.
Trade ReviewIn examining school choice in Manchester, England, this volume describes many issues that are strangely familiar to education in the US. Authors Byrne (Univ. of Manchester, UK) and de Tona base their study on interviews with parents in Manchester who are made anxious by racial and class issues when deciding to enroll their children in a state-funded school of their choice. School choice for parents is in many cases a mirage (there are no or few choices in many parts of England), but even so, those interviewed negotiate meanings of diversity when considering their choices, opting for a good "mix" that is seldom genuine. For instance, parents will accept racial and ethnic diversity over socioeconomic diversity, and white parents especially see increased numbers of Muslim students as an undesirable form of diversity. In the US, similar agitations exist among white parents towards Muslim, Black, or Hispanic students in their children's schools. Ultimately, this book is less about class and more about the mental gymnastics parents execute in rationalizing anxiety. Byrne and de Tona have added a worthy contribution to studies on education.
--R. P. Lorenzo, Prairie View A&M University
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Table of ContentsAcknowledgements
1 Introduction
2 Unequal choosing
3 Imagining places
4 Choice, what choice?
5 Schooling fears
6 Evaluating the mix: negotiating with multiculture
7 Conclusions
Appendix One: Participants
Bibliography
