Socially Exposed Schooling: The Majority Experience

Abstract

So far I have presented examples of parents who have actively sought socially restricted sites or have gained access to them through residency or recommendation. Such schools are in the minority. The vast majority of suburban public schools in the north, west, and outer southeast of Melbourne accept all students who seek them out and do not have waiting lists. These are neighborhood schools, and students attend the closest one almost automatically. Previous Australian research has suggested that working-class families establish a strong division of labor between home and school, with students playing the main role in decision making and communicating with their schools (Connell, 2003). English research similarly found that children of working-class families were more likely to have a bigger role in deciding on a secondary school than their middle-class counterparts, who were gradually guided by parents into accepting parental decisions (Ball and Gewirtz, 1997). English working-class families were more concerned with locality and the presence of friends, while middle-class families focused on school characteristics, such as streaming. At the same time, working-class and migrant students were less likely to be seen as assets by schools and face fewer options as a consequence (Gewirtz, Ball, and Bowe, 1995). This chapter presents various forms of parental engagement with socially exposed schools—schooling in those sites which cater, to a greater or lesser extent, to “new” student populations, ones that do not necessarily share a cultural affinity with the curriculum, pedagogy, and examination systems of secondary educations historic audience.