Journal Article

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

Groos, Thomas, Lobato, Isabel Ramos

2019

Overview

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. 2008年，联邦北莱茵 - 威斯特法伦州（NRW）/德国废除了小学学区。写于数年后本文的主要目的是提供有关政策改革对家长选择的影响，以及随之而来的、对教育隔离的影响。基于混合方法，本文旨在了解，在学区制度下长大、习惯了这一制度的经历，对于父母对政策改革的理解和选择策略有何影响。我们证明，在2008年之后，对前学区以外的学校选择（社会选择性）显著增加，导致学校隔离水平更高，但学校受影响的程度差异很大。研究清楚地表明，选择策略的差异是由来自不同教育背景的父母从政策改革中得出的不同结论所导致的。受教育程度较低的父母对这一早期教育阶段的重要性看得较低，而许多受过良好教育的父母将自由选择的引入解释为对选择的股东 - 政策改革引发并加剧了这种观念。对他们来说，选择不再只是一种机会；通过其正式化，它似乎成为了一种责任。因此，通过片面地支持受过良好教育的父母的利益并加强他们的竞争力，改革似乎使现有的选择不平等永久化，而不是缓解它们。

• Publisher: Sage Publications, Ltd,SAGE Publications,Sage Publications Ltd
• Subject: Catchment areas / Education / Education policy / Education reform / Elementary schools / Inequality / Parents & parenting / Policy reform / Reforms / Schools / Segregation / Special issue article: School segregation in contemporary cities: Socio-spatial dynamics and urban outcomes / Studies