Looking for the ordinary? Parental choice and elite school avoidance in Finland and Germany

Abstract

Middle-class parents’ strategies of reproduction and social closure and their role as a driver of school segregation are already well-reported. Our two independent research projects in Finland and Germany have additionally revealed a somewhat surprising and not yet fully understood tendency of certain middle-class parents to actively avoid the most reputable schools. Using these findings as a starting point, the paper investigates the motives and reasoning behind middle-class parents’ avoidance strategies in the cities of Espoo (Finland) and Mülheim an der Ruhr (Germany). The analysis shows that in educational transitions where choice is not constrained by a risk of children being left behind, some families with high educational resources and imbued with a certain ethos give precedence to ‘ordinary’ schools over highly selective elite schools. If this ethos can be skilfully integrated into urban educational policies, it may help develop effective equality strategies supported by parents and seen as justified by them.