Choice as a duty? The abolition of primary school catchment areas in North Rhine-Westphalia/Germany and its impact on parent choice strategies. (November 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ramos Lobato, Isabel; Groos, Thomas
• Other Names: Boterman Willem guest-editor.; Musterd Sako guest-editor.; Pacchi Carolina guest-editor.; Ranci Costanzo guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Urban studies. Volume 56:Number 15(2019:Nov.)
• Page Start: 3274
• Page End: 3291
• Publication Date: 2019-11
• Subjects: catchment areas -- parent school choice -- policy reform -- school segregation -- social class; 学区 -- 家长的学校选择 -- 政策改革 -- 学校隔离 -- 社会阶层; Cities and towns -- Periodicals; City planning -- Periodicals; 307.1216
• DOI: 10.1177/0042098018814456
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0042-0980

Abstract

In 2008, primary school catchment areas were abolished in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)/Germany. Written several years later, this article's main aim is to provide insights into the impact of the policy reform on parent choice practices and subsequently on educational segregation. Based on a mixed-methods approach, it seeks to understand how being raised in and accustomed to a catchment area system affects parents' understanding of the policy reform and impacts their choice strategies. We demonstrate that the (socially selective) choice of a school outside the former catchment area increased significantly after 2008, leading to a higher level of school segregation, though affecting schools to very different extents. The study clearly reveals that the differences in choice strategies are shaped by the dissimilar conclusions parents from different educational backgrounds draw from the policy reform. While less-educated parents attribute less significance to this early stage of schooling, many well-educated ones interpret the introduction of free choice as an instigation to choose – a perception triggered and intensified by the policy reform. For them, choice is no longer only perceived as an opportunity; through its formalisation it rather seems to become a duty. Thus, by one-sidedly favouring well-educated parents' interests and benefiting their abilities to play the game, the reform seems to perpetuate existing inequalities in choice rather than to alleviate them.