Choosing the local school: middle class parents' values and social and ethnic mix in London and Paris

This paper analyses a specific kind of choice, choice of the local school, by a specific middle class group, characterized by its high cultural capital, its ‘caring’ perspective and liberal political orientation, in two cosmopolitan, ‘mixed’ settings, London and Paris, with a focus on values and how ethical dilemmas raised by confrontation with the social and ethnic mix in schools are solved.

It draws upon a small-scale comparative study of urban middle class parents conducted in 2004–2005 at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris in collaboration with the London Institute of Education. Using the same open-ended schedule, 28 interviews were carried out in one London locality and 38 in a similar locality in the Parisian periphery (plus 12 others in a nearby private school).

Its main purpose was to use a cross-Channel comparison to test and enrich a comprehensive model of school choice that tries to take into account the complex interaction between policies, strategies, contexts, resources and values.