01/28/09
Where to send the kids?
New research shows growing middle class anxiety over multiple choices for schools
University of Sydney researchers investigating the growing pressure on parents to choose the right school for their children have proposed that middle class families can be divided into seven different groupings.
The groups, including the ‘old middle class’, the ‘cosmopolitan middle class’ and the ‘marginal middle class’, all had different attitudes to schooling but were almost all united by a sense of anxiety about schooling, and the need to protect their children from the ‘wrong’ school.
“Many parents now assume the role of astute consumers whose actions are fearful, alert and strategic,” says Associate Professor Craig Campbell. “Parents, particularly mothers, are becoming expert operators of the school market, undertaking constant surveillance of their children, teachers and schools.”
The research is published in School Choice, a new book co-written by Campbell with Professor Geoffrey Sherington and Dr Helen Proctor and published by Allen & Unwin. The authors trace the growth of different school markets, a major new development in Australian education over the last 30 years.
“Previously very few urban parents looked at the schools in their city and imagined they constituted a market from which they could freely choose,” he says. “Today, anxiety about a more dangerous world means that thinking about school choice can begin as soon as the child is born.
“One of parents’ most common concerns was to avoid schools which were seen as dominated by too many poor, badly behaved or ethnically alien children who threatened to overwhelm the ‘special’ learning and social needs of ‘my child’,” Campbell says.
The past 30 years has been marked by a growing shift in support of government schools to non-government schools, to the point where just 60 per cent of Australian secondary students now attend government schools. But not all parents appear happy with this shift, the authors found.
Professor Sherington commented: “School choice has often been sold by governments as a response to middle class aspiration. But what our research showed was that choice itself has often ‘imposed’. We found a significant part of the middle class remains very sceptical about choice. They remain committed to the local secondary school.”
The book’s findings are based on 63 in-depth interviews with parents who had just been through the process of choosing a school, 1,350 written surveys of parents whose children who had just begun year 7, and Australian census data from 1976 to 2001.
The family groups identified by the researchers – the old middle class, the new middle class, the Catholic middle class, the cosmopolitan middle class, the first generation middle class, the self-made middle class and the marginal middle class – are outlined in the attached document ‘Seven middle class groupings’.
Key findings from the research are outlined below.
School Choice; How parents negotiate the new school market in Australia:
By Craig Campbell, Helen Proctor and Geoffrey Sherington
Some key findings
* Racial and ethnic groups represented in large numbers at particular schools were often seen as threatening by middle class parents.
* Parents’ – particularly mothers’ – roles don’t stop at choosing a school they are actively intervening within schools once their children enter them to seek the best outcomes for their children.
* Selective schools in the survey tended to be more socially narrow in terms of parents’ occupational background, with families from professional backgrounds the main occupational grouping in the selective schools surveyed.
* In the non-government sector, Catholic, low-fee Christian and other low-to-medium fee schools have the broadest representation of middle class groups.
* The most socially representative schools in terms of parental occupational background are government comprehensive and mixed schools.
* Enrolment in government selective high schools was often seen as a tradition that could “be handed down along with the family silver,” by many Anglo-Australian families, but they were acutely aware of the growing role of coaching colleges in gaining entry, and the heavy demand, especially from some Asian-Australian ethnic groupings.
* Even some parents who profess disdain for coaching colleges eventually admitted in interviews to either sending their child to coaching schools or coaching their child at home.
* Not all parents get to exercise ‘school choice’ as its publicists advocate. There are many parents whose children are ‘rejected’ by schools. They are ‘out of area’ for the desired government schools, their children did not pass the selective entrance tests, they weren’t religious enough to get their children into church schools, they did not have the money to pay the fees of a desired school. There are a lot of frustrated parents out there in the new school market.
* Middle class parents are acutely aware of the advantages of certain geographical areas and tend to do more long term planning than working class parents when choosing schools, often purchasing homes in the catchment areas for government schools with good reputations.
* While many parents expressed support for their local government school, they often did not send their own children there, concerned that their children would be put at risk because of lack of support for ‘special’ needs, personalities or talents.
* Many parents interviewed felt upset. They felt they were being ‘forced’ into the non-government sector of schools because there was insufficient investment in government schools. They thought governments were neglecting them and the quality of education was suffering as a result.
* At the same time there remain a very large number of middle class parents who remain satisfied with their local government high school. But the highest rates of satisfaction tend to come from more securely middle class areas.
* While the swing away from government schools is happening more slowly at primary than secondary level, there is evidence that parental frustrations with local government primary schools is increasing, leading to earlier withdrawals to the non-government sector.
School choice: seven groupings from the urban middle class*
The following is an edited extract from the book School Choice: How parents negotiate the new school market in Australia, By Craig Campbell, Helen Proctor and Geoffrey Sherington, published by Allen & Unwin
The old middle class
Has its origins in the class structure and class relations of Australia from the mid-nineteenth century. Much of its roots are in upper and middle class Protestantism but now includes some Catholics. By the early twentieth century the suburbs of most Australian cities were clearly divided along class lines, and this is still reflected today with most of the old middle class concentrated in established middle class suburbs in proximity to the old church and other corporate schools founded in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Was once attached and usually loyal to specific well-established church and corporate (non-government) schools but new school markets may be disrupting such attachments. Views itself as socially conservative and tends to preach an older view of the good citizen: respectful, hard-working and honest.
The new middle class
Emerged principally from the white collar and new professional employees of the early twentieth century that benefited from the invention of meritocratic government secondary education. Their traditional values tend to celebrate the idea of the citizen over that of the consumer. Closely tied to the older selective and academic high schools before the era of comprehensive secondary schooling. Many have remained loyal to government education over two to three generations, being particularly supportive of the academic high schools but also of the government comprehensive high schools where they are located within middle class communities or suburbs. Again, new markets in schooling are challenging older patterns of allegiance.
The Catholic middle class
Emerged from the aspirations of the Australian Catholic community over the twentieth century. Schools originally run by the religious orders helped make several generations of Catholic parents into a middle class, large numbers of whom had working class backgrounds. The contemporary Catholic middle class is far more diverse than in the 1960s and 1970s. Some attend elite Catholic schools which have long maintained associations with the Protestant schools of the old middle class. Others retain a loyalty to the local Catholic schools that are now systematised by Catholic Education Offices. Not only are new school markets disrupting this group’s patterns of school allegiance. There are more mixed marriages and more liberal outlooks on the raising of children than previously.
The cosmopolitan middle class
Emerged from the old and new middle class groups. Many of its constituents have benefited from the expansion of secondary and tertiary education from the 1960s to the 1980s. They tend to be employed in the old and new professions or the upper managerial positions associated with finance and business for example. They are not necessarily tied to any particular school or system and often believe that they are unconstrained by the market. They often reject the social conservatism of the old middle class though occasionally they live in close proximity to them. They may also live in gentrified parts of the inner city, in keeping with their search for a cosmopolitan life style. They seek an education which will meet the individual needs of their children who are often regarded as displaying some form of talent. This group often appears open to change. Usually their school choice decisions come down to government selective and corporate, but less often, low-fee non-government, Catholic, Christian or other ‘faith’ schools.
The first generation middle class
Are the first in their family to acquire some form of middle class status as well as to have extended education. Many are anxious to retain and pass this status on to their children but are uncertain as to how this can be achieved. Most have been educated in government schools in Australia or overseas. Some have been educated in rural areas or are second generation immigrants. Some feel dissatisfied with their own schooling particularly if it was a government comprehensive high school. As ‘recent arrivals’ to the middle class they have not developed any form of loyalty to a school or school system over time. As with sections of the new middle class some feel betrayed by the declining resources in the public sector and thus turn to low fee, including Catholic schools, though they may not be Catholic themselves.
The self-made middle class
Has been created out of the economic expansion of the past two decades, and there is some over-lap with the first generation middle class. Tends to feel that it is not education or schools that made them, but their own enterprise and hard work (some see their own schooling as hindering their progress). Some are of first or second generation immigrant background. As they are ‘self made’ they are also unsure about what to do about the education of their own children. Often have neither the appropriate cultural capital nor the social connections to ensure their children’s success through schooling. This tends to make them one of the more anxious middle class groups. Tend to live on the fringes of the city in the expanding middle class suburbs and this influences their decisions over choice. They tend to avoid the older church and corporate schools not just because most of these schools are in the more established suburbs of the city, but also because they feel uncomfortable with families of the old middle class that traditionally support these schools. They therefore consider Catholic schools or the newly established ‘grammars’, some of which are non-denominational, and seem to offer a safe, disciplined environment providing traditional symbols of good order such as uniforms. Many avoid the local government comprehensive high school which appears to them to be typified by ill-discipline and student misbehaviour. Are often dissatisfied with the way the educational market operates.
The marginal middle class
Comprises those on the margins who are hoping to achieve middle class status for their children through education. A large number of its members are recent arrivals from overseas. Others are Australian-born who have lost status and wealth or have yet to fully acquire them. The way forward is often seen to be entry to some form of selective or ‘good’ high school. In some respects they are prisoners of the market. Have a rather limited choice as many cannot afford to pay the fees of the non-government sector. Unless their children win a selective school place—and these are more available in New South Wales than other Australian cities—they may have no option but the local government school or a low-fee non-government school. There may be ethno-racial issues involved in their struggle for power in school markets. Their capacity to efficiently engage family or community social capitals and resources in the achievement of their goals is not assured.
The groups, including the ‘old middle class’, the ‘cosmopolitan middle class’ and the ‘marginal middle class’, all had different attitudes to schooling but were almost all united by a sense of anxiety about schooling, and the need to protect their children from the ‘wrong’ school.
“Many parents now assume the role of astute consumers whose actions are fearful, alert and strategic,” says Associate Professor Craig Campbell. “Parents, particularly mothers, are becoming expert operators of the school market, undertaking constant surveillance of their children, teachers and schools.”
The research is published in School Choice, a new book co-written by Campbell with Professor Geoffrey Sherington and Dr Helen Proctor and published by Allen & Unwin. The authors trace the growth of different school markets, a major new development in Australian education over the last 30 years.
“Previously very few urban parents looked at the schools in their city and imagined they constituted a market from which they could freely choose,” he says. “Today, anxiety about a more dangerous world means that thinking about school choice can begin as soon as the child is born.
“One of parents’ most common concerns was to avoid schools which were seen as dominated by too many poor, badly behaved or ethnically alien children who threatened to overwhelm the ‘special’ learning and social needs of ‘my child’,” Campbell says.
The past 30 years has been marked by a growing shift in support of government schools to non-government schools, to the point where just 60 per cent of Australian secondary students now attend government schools. But not all parents appear happy with this shift, the authors found.
Professor Sherington commented: “School choice has often been sold by governments as a response to middle class aspiration. But what our research showed was that choice itself has often ‘imposed’. We found a significant part of the middle class remains very sceptical about choice. They remain committed to the local secondary school.”
The book’s findings are based on 63 in-depth interviews with parents who had just been through the process of choosing a school, 1,350 written surveys of parents whose children who had just begun year 7, and Australian census data from 1976 to 2001.
The family groups identified by the researchers – the old middle class, the new middle class, the Catholic middle class, the cosmopolitan middle class, the first generation middle class, the self-made middle class and the marginal middle class – are outlined in the attached document ‘Seven middle class groupings’.
Key findings from the research are outlined below.
School Choice; How parents negotiate the new school market in Australia:
By Craig Campbell, Helen Proctor and Geoffrey Sherington
Some key findings
* Racial and ethnic groups represented in large numbers at particular schools were often seen as threatening by middle class parents.
* Parents’ – particularly mothers’ – roles don’t stop at choosing a school they are actively intervening within schools once their children enter them to seek the best outcomes for their children.
* Selective schools in the survey tended to be more socially narrow in terms of parents’ occupational background, with families from professional backgrounds the main occupational grouping in the selective schools surveyed.
* In the non-government sector, Catholic, low-fee Christian and other low-to-medium fee schools have the broadest representation of middle class groups.
* The most socially representative schools in terms of parental occupational background are government comprehensive and mixed schools.
* Enrolment in government selective high schools was often seen as a tradition that could “be handed down along with the family silver,” by many Anglo-Australian families, but they were acutely aware of the growing role of coaching colleges in gaining entry, and the heavy demand, especially from some Asian-Australian ethnic groupings.
* Even some parents who profess disdain for coaching colleges eventually admitted in interviews to either sending their child to coaching schools or coaching their child at home.
* Not all parents get to exercise ‘school choice’ as its publicists advocate. There are many parents whose children are ‘rejected’ by schools. They are ‘out of area’ for the desired government schools, their children did not pass the selective entrance tests, they weren’t religious enough to get their children into church schools, they did not have the money to pay the fees of a desired school. There are a lot of frustrated parents out there in the new school market.
* Middle class parents are acutely aware of the advantages of certain geographical areas and tend to do more long term planning than working class parents when choosing schools, often purchasing homes in the catchment areas for government schools with good reputations.
* While many parents expressed support for their local government school, they often did not send their own children there, concerned that their children would be put at risk because of lack of support for ‘special’ needs, personalities or talents.
* Many parents interviewed felt upset. They felt they were being ‘forced’ into the non-government sector of schools because there was insufficient investment in government schools. They thought governments were neglecting them and the quality of education was suffering as a result.
* At the same time there remain a very large number of middle class parents who remain satisfied with their local government high school. But the highest rates of satisfaction tend to come from more securely middle class areas.
* While the swing away from government schools is happening more slowly at primary than secondary level, there is evidence that parental frustrations with local government primary schools is increasing, leading to earlier withdrawals to the non-government sector.
School choice: seven groupings from the urban middle class*
The following is an edited extract from the book School Choice: How parents negotiate the new school market in Australia, By Craig Campbell, Helen Proctor and Geoffrey Sherington, published by Allen & Unwin
The old middle class
Has its origins in the class structure and class relations of Australia from the mid-nineteenth century. Much of its roots are in upper and middle class Protestantism but now includes some Catholics. By the early twentieth century the suburbs of most Australian cities were clearly divided along class lines, and this is still reflected today with most of the old middle class concentrated in established middle class suburbs in proximity to the old church and other corporate schools founded in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Was once attached and usually loyal to specific well-established church and corporate (non-government) schools but new school markets may be disrupting such attachments. Views itself as socially conservative and tends to preach an older view of the good citizen: respectful, hard-working and honest.
The new middle class
Emerged principally from the white collar and new professional employees of the early twentieth century that benefited from the invention of meritocratic government secondary education. Their traditional values tend to celebrate the idea of the citizen over that of the consumer. Closely tied to the older selective and academic high schools before the era of comprehensive secondary schooling. Many have remained loyal to government education over two to three generations, being particularly supportive of the academic high schools but also of the government comprehensive high schools where they are located within middle class communities or suburbs. Again, new markets in schooling are challenging older patterns of allegiance.
The Catholic middle class
Emerged from the aspirations of the Australian Catholic community over the twentieth century. Schools originally run by the religious orders helped make several generations of Catholic parents into a middle class, large numbers of whom had working class backgrounds. The contemporary Catholic middle class is far more diverse than in the 1960s and 1970s. Some attend elite Catholic schools which have long maintained associations with the Protestant schools of the old middle class. Others retain a loyalty to the local Catholic schools that are now systematised by Catholic Education Offices. Not only are new school markets disrupting this group’s patterns of school allegiance. There are more mixed marriages and more liberal outlooks on the raising of children than previously.
The cosmopolitan middle class
Emerged from the old and new middle class groups. Many of its constituents have benefited from the expansion of secondary and tertiary education from the 1960s to the 1980s. They tend to be employed in the old and new professions or the upper managerial positions associated with finance and business for example. They are not necessarily tied to any particular school or system and often believe that they are unconstrained by the market. They often reject the social conservatism of the old middle class though occasionally they live in close proximity to them. They may also live in gentrified parts of the inner city, in keeping with their search for a cosmopolitan life style. They seek an education which will meet the individual needs of their children who are often regarded as displaying some form of talent. This group often appears open to change. Usually their school choice decisions come down to government selective and corporate, but less often, low-fee non-government, Catholic, Christian or other ‘faith’ schools.
The first generation middle class
Are the first in their family to acquire some form of middle class status as well as to have extended education. Many are anxious to retain and pass this status on to their children but are uncertain as to how this can be achieved. Most have been educated in government schools in Australia or overseas. Some have been educated in rural areas or are second generation immigrants. Some feel dissatisfied with their own schooling particularly if it was a government comprehensive high school. As ‘recent arrivals’ to the middle class they have not developed any form of loyalty to a school or school system over time. As with sections of the new middle class some feel betrayed by the declining resources in the public sector and thus turn to low fee, including Catholic schools, though they may not be Catholic themselves.
The self-made middle class
Has been created out of the economic expansion of the past two decades, and there is some over-lap with the first generation middle class. Tends to feel that it is not education or schools that made them, but their own enterprise and hard work (some see their own schooling as hindering their progress). Some are of first or second generation immigrant background. As they are ‘self made’ they are also unsure about what to do about the education of their own children. Often have neither the appropriate cultural capital nor the social connections to ensure their children’s success through schooling. This tends to make them one of the more anxious middle class groups. Tend to live on the fringes of the city in the expanding middle class suburbs and this influences their decisions over choice. They tend to avoid the older church and corporate schools not just because most of these schools are in the more established suburbs of the city, but also because they feel uncomfortable with families of the old middle class that traditionally support these schools. They therefore consider Catholic schools or the newly established ‘grammars’, some of which are non-denominational, and seem to offer a safe, disciplined environment providing traditional symbols of good order such as uniforms. Many avoid the local government comprehensive high school which appears to them to be typified by ill-discipline and student misbehaviour. Are often dissatisfied with the way the educational market operates.
The marginal middle class
Comprises those on the margins who are hoping to achieve middle class status for their children through education. A large number of its members are recent arrivals from overseas. Others are Australian-born who have lost status and wealth or have yet to fully acquire them. The way forward is often seen to be entry to some form of selective or ‘good’ high school. In some respects they are prisoners of the market. Have a rather limited choice as many cannot afford to pay the fees of the non-government sector. Unless their children win a selective school place—and these are more available in New South Wales than other Australian cities—they may have no option but the local government school or a low-fee non-government school. There may be ethno-racial issues involved in their struggle for power in school markets. Their capacity to efficiently engage family or community social capitals and resources in the achievement of their goals is not assured.
advertisement
advertisement