Middle-class families and school choice: The instrumental order as a necessary but not sufficient condition

Resumen

This paper shows the main findings of a qualitative researching project over the school choice process by middle class families in the city of Granada. More concretely, it focuses over the evaluation process of the schools by these families, what is their discourse related to the schools and what strategies are developed along the whole process. In order to carry out this analysis, Bernstein’s concept of “school culture” and its relationship with the two orders described by this author –the instrumental and expressive orders- were really useful. In this article, we will tackle the first of them, the instrumental order, but it is important not to forget that both of them are deeply interrelated and constitute the core of the evaluation process of the schools. As shown in this paper, middle-class parents are aware of the importance of the educational success and of the obtention of the credentials that facilitate the access to the next stages. In this way, a “good school” would be the one that guarantees good results, promoting and tempting its pupils to reject expectations under their possibilities and to opt to get to the top positions that their “potential” –both personal and familiar- allows them. It is acknowledged the existence of constant references to the influence exerted by the classmates and closer friends in the maintenance of such expectations and aspirations, as well as the preparation of the teachers and the methodologies chosen by them. Finally, the private schools are seen as a “refuge” given the possibilities that they offer to control the school atmosphere and a certain level of segregation of the students according to their social class.