Seeking a 'critical mass': middle-class parents' collective engagement in city public schooling

A growing body of literature has begun to explore the individual identities, motivations, and school choices of middle-class, typically white, parents who choose to reside in socioeconomically and racially mixed central city neighborhoods. Drawing on qualitative research in three US cities, we argue...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of sociology of education 2016-10, Vol.37 (7), p.905-927
Main Authors: Posey-Maddox, Linn, Kimelberg, Shelley McDonough, Cucchiara, Maia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activities
Children
Cities
Community Coordination
Cultural capital
Cultural Pluralism
Educational Quality
Educational sociology
Enrollment Influences
General public
Illinois (Chicago)
Income
Individual Characteristics
Information dissemination
Inner city
Low income families
Low Income Groups
Massachusetts (Boston)
Middle Class
Middle schools
Motivation
Neighborhoods
Parent Attitudes
parent involvement
Parent Participation
Parent School Relationship
Parents & parenting
Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)
Public Schools
Qualitative Research
Quality of education
Reproduction
School Choice
Social Capital
Social Class
Social Networks
Social reproduction
Socioeconomic Status
Urban areas
Urban Education
Urban Schools
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Summary:A growing body of literature has begun to explore the individual identities, motivations, and school choices of middle-class, typically white, parents who choose to reside in socioeconomically and racially mixed central city neighborhoods. Drawing on qualitative research in three US cities, we argue that a focus on middle-class parents' collective engagement in schooling is particularly important in under-resourced urban contexts. In these environments, we show, middle-class parents' use of social networks often extends beyond basic information-sharing about school quality to encompass a range of activities undertaken with other families 'like them' who have also chosen to enroll their children in an urban public school. We find that, in some instances, middle-class parents' collective actions can benefit an entire class or school. Yet in other instances, their activation of social capital can contribute to processes of social reproduction in urban schooling by excluding or marginalizing low-income students and their families.
ISSN:0142-5692
1465-3346
DOI:10.1080/01425692.2014.986564