We don’t resonate with the “regular school:” Parental choice of elementary school in context of the congruence of familial and institutional habitus
Abstract
According to Lareau (2003), middle-class pupils have an advantage in educational institutions as a result of the congruence of the parenting style in their home with teachers' expectations. In this paper, however, I introduce the perspective of middle-class parents who do not foresee such an advantage in a "regular school" because of the supposed incongruity of their parenting style with the institution's environment.
The aim of the study is to illustrate: 1. how a select group of middle-class parents construes its perceived incongruity with the "regular school"; and 2. what disadvantages these parents anticipate in a "regular school." I draw on in-depth interviews with 17 parents who were considering selective elementary schools and classes in Czech towns of various sizes. The parents expected that a "regular school" would devalue their time and energy invested into child-rearing while disabling them from fulfilling their need to be good parents.
The limits of applying the concepts of "concerted cultivation" and the "accomplishment of natural growth" in the Czech context are discussed, as are the tensions faced by Czech public schools in striving to keep middle-class pupils within socially mixed classes.