The plurality of the Global Middle Class(es) and their school choices – moving the ‘field’ forward empirically and theoretically

In search of the ‘best’ option: American private secondary education for upper-middle-class Chinese teenagers

“…Another group of scholars (Ball and Nikita, 2014; Maxwell et al, 2019) argue for the importance to study ‘the plurality of the global middle class(es) and their school choice’ yet they adopt a rather narrow definition of GMC to include only those ‘globally-mobile professional parents.’ In this section, I demonstrate the commonality of the emerging globally minded but locally grounded GMC through the discursive frame of education and the theoretical relevance of including such a group in the discussion of GMC and their school choice.…”

“…Previous research on the topic of global school choice and mobilities of global households mainly focuses on international students seeking higher education (Bhandari and Blumenthal, 2013; Ma and Garcia-Murillo, 2017; Mosneaga and Winther, 2013; Stein and Andreotti, 2015), global households treating education as part of their migration strategy (Abelmann et al, 2014; Chiang, 2008; Fong, 2010; Orellana et al, 2001; Waters, 2015; Zhou, 1998), or the ‘local’ school choices of middle-class families that move together globally (Beech et al, 2021; Maxwell and Yemini, 2019; Maxwell et al, 2019). This research provides a unique angle where emerging urban upper-middle-class parents exit the local school-choice market and send their children away to a foreign country for private secondary education, with the belief that it is the ‘best’ choice available in the global educational market.…”

Buffered mobility: parenting strategies of religious Jewish global middle class families

“…Some theoretical writings on the GMC argue that the state of being constantly mobile leads to a "rootless" existence, the emergence of "third culture kids" and becoming "global citizens" (Pollock, Van Reken, & Pollock, 2010). Nevertheless, some newer empirical work (Maxwell, Yemini, Koh, & Agbaria, 2019), has, instead argued, that such forms of persistent mobility might be closely connected to an active retention of ties to a "home nation". However, what is still missing from the literature is an understanding of how differently constituted groups within the GMC category, engage with the opportunities and challenges of constant relocation, make educational and cultural capital accumulation choices, and develop transnational relations.…”

Introduction

“…The second part focuses on the most topical issue in academic discourse, in light of the rise of the international mobility of the global middle classes, which, as part of their mobility patterns, are routinely engaged in seeking educational frameworks for their children, among other parenting issues. These families, as well as families of immigrants, often choose bilingual and international schools for their children (Maxwell et al, 2019). Accordingly, this part deals with the issues arising from international and bilingual schools in the context of the minority teachers' role.…”