Persistent and Resistant: Middle Class Advantage in Schooling

This commentary applies Martin Thrupp’s long-term research interest in the practices of persistent middleclass advantage to a discussion of parents’ apparent freedom to choose the State school their child attends, and the effects of this parental choice on educational equality. In a highly unequal society such as Aotearoa New Zealand, parents’ capabilities to act, consume, self-maximise and choose freely in the schooling marketplace are also highly unequal. The commentary then draws on Axel Honneth’s version of recognition theory to examine underlying assumptions among advantaged groups that effectively frame parental choice as: (i) natural (i.e. all parents promote their own children’s best interests); (ii) unobjectionable (i.e. parents can choose or decide not to as they wish); and (iii) harmless to others (i.e. parents’ schooling choices affect only their own children). This family or household view of best interests is contrasted with one that focuses on the collective schooling interests of the neighbourhood.