Parental preferences in school choice: comparing reputational hierarchies of schools in Chile and Finland

Parental school satisfaction in the context of segregation of basic education in urban Finland

“…However, at the same time, parents tend to want to avoid so-called elite classes since they are often considered to be too competitive and stressful environments, endangering a child's school contentment. (Kosunen, 2014;Kosunen & Carrasco, 2016) Against the backdrop of parentocracy and educational segregation, this article sets out to examine the extent and mechanisms of the segregation of basic education in urban Finland by asking whether school SES is connected to how satisfied parents are with different aspects of their child's school and its functioning. Parental education is also taken into consideration.…”

“…Parental education is also taken into consideration. Three factors of parental school satisfaction that have been shown to be important in previous studies were derived from the data, namely, school culture (Friedman et al, 2006;Meier & Lemmer, 2019), child's school satisfaction and learning (Kosunen & Carrasco, 2016;van Zanten, 2013), and home-school cooperation (Friedman et al, 2007;Jónsdóttir & Björnsdóttir, 2012;Meier & Lemmer, 2019). School culture includes shared attitudes, beliefs, norms, and values, as well as school safety and social interactions among students and between students and teachers, which all manifest themselves in students' behaviours at school and in teachers' attitudes towards students (cf.…”

“…Bourdieu & Passeron, 1990). Previous studies have shown that Finnish parents typically prefer moderately socially mixed classes and that they perceive a high percentage of students from immigrant and lower socio-economic backgrounds as a potential threat to their children's school engagement and well-being (Kosunen & Carrasco, 2016;Kosunen & Seppänen, 2015a). Hence, higher school SES indicates a more middle-class compatible school culture, which parents see as beneficial for their children's schooling and which, therefore, increases their satisfaction.…”

School access and choice of migrant families in Chile: I had no problems because the school is open, because it accepts many nationalities.

“…Uno de los primeros estudios señala que "si bien solo algunos padres citan la clase como un factor de elección, la mayoría de ellos solo incluye escuelas con similares características sociodemográficas en los estudiantes dentro de su set de elección" (Elacqua, Schneider & Buckley, 2006, p. 596). Por lo tanto, la clase social ha estado en el centro de los estudios acerca de la elección de escuela en Chile (Córdoba, 2014;Hernández y Raczynski, 2015;Kosunen & Carrasco, 2014) y solo recientemente se ha incorporado la intersección de género a la clase social en el proceso de elección (Gubbins, 2014;Rojas, Falabella y Leyton, 2016). Sin embargo, se ha prestado menos atención a otros elementos como la nacionalidad, la raza o el origen étnico.…”

“…En relación con el factor social, este se encuentra presente en el discurso de los padres, especialmente de aquellos que han matriculado a sus hijos en escuelas particulares subvencionadas con cobro. Esto también se puede apreciar en estudios acerca de la elección de escuelas en padres chilenos (Córdoba, 2014;Hernández y Raczynski, 2015;Kosunen & Carrasco, 2014). Esta elección puede comprenderse como "un proceso de elección configurado bajo una dinámica de distinción y cierre social [en] aspectos como la importancia de entornos escolares socialmente homogéneos [tipo de alumnos y apoderados], la valoración de la selección y el cobro de matrícula, y la preponderante mirada negativa hacia educación municipal gratuita" (Hernández y Raczynski, 2015, p. 135).…”