Multicultural Desires? Parental Negotiation of Multiculture and Difference in Choosing Secondary Schools for their Children

Bibliographic Data

ID3383153
AuthorsB Byrne (0000-0003-3519-4709, University of Manchester), Carla De Tona (0000-0003-4263-0951, University of Manchester)
Year2014
Volume62
Issue3
Pages475-493
Publication date2014-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/1467-954x.12076
PMID25506091
PMCIDPMC4244115
OpenAlexW1841910313
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited29

This paper considers the ways in which parents talk about choosing secondary schools in three areas of Greater Manchester. It argues that this can be a moment when parents are considering their own attitudes to, and shaping their children's experiences of, multiculture. Multiculture is taken as the everyday experience of living with difference. The paper argues that multiculture needs to be understood as shaped not only by racialized, ethnic or religious difference (as it is commonly understood) but also by other differences which parents may consider important, particularly class and approaches to parenting. We stress the need to examine what parents say about schooling in the context in which they are talking, which is shaped by local areas and the experiences of their children in primary schools. Based on interviews with an ethnically mixed groups of parents from different schools, we show how perceptions of the racialized and class demographics of schools can influence parents' choice of secondary schools. The paper also argues that attention needs to be paid to the ways in which terms such as 'multicultural' and 'mix' are applied uniformly to very different contexts, be they particular schools or local areas, suggesting there is a paucity of language in Britain when talking about multiculture

Mathematics education · Multiculturalism · Negotiation · Pedagogy · Social science · Sociology · Diverse Education Studies and Reforms · Early Childhood Education and Development · Gender Studies · Parental Involvement in Education · Psychology