Was bedingt die Wahl eines nicht empfohlenen höheren Bildungsgangs?

• Published in: Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft 2008-12, Vol.11 (4), p.626-647
• Main Authors: Harazd, Bea, van Ophuysen, Stefanie
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Allgemeiner Teil; Pedagogic Psychology; Psychotherapy and Counseling; Social Sciences
• ISSN: 1434-663X; 1862-5215
• DOI: 10.1007/s11618-008-0037-z

According to PIRLS 17 % of German parents choose a non-recommended secondary school-type for their child. Only few empirical studies try to identify parental characteristics related to their rejection of a school-type recommendation from their child’s teacher. Based on the sociological rational choice theory, research primarily focuses on characteristics of social background and on cost-benefit considerations. In addition to this, the present study analyzes to what extent parental evaluation and attribution of the child’s achievement and the appraisal of the primary school’s advice influence the probability of parents’ rejection of the recommendation. The focus of this investigation is on parents whose educational aspirations and choices of school are higher than the teachers’ recommendations. By means of logistic regression we analyze, how well parental decision-making – i. e. adopting the teacher’s recommendation vs. insisting on own, non-compliant opinion – can be predicted by theory-based independent variables. Avoidance of a loss in educational status, parental knowledge of the school system and the perceived quality of a primary school’s advice are revealed to be significant predictors of this rejection.