Middle-class parents and social mix in French urban schools: Reproduction and transformation of class relations in education

Abstract

This article focuses on the links between class position and social reproduction in education. It points out new forms of social closure and social control among middle-class parents of children in primary and secondary schools in the Parisian periphery. Its main contention is that in order to understand symbolic struggles over schooling both between the middle classes and the lower classes and between middle-class factions, it is necessary to analyse parental perceptions and actions in urban contexts. The first section analyses ways in which the social and ethnic mix in public schools located in heterogeneous urban areas creates problems for the realisation of the educational expectations of middle-class parents and leads them to develop exclusionary practices to limit interaction with the lower classes. The central idea is that poor and minority pupils are rejected or looked at with suspicion because they are constructed as a hindrance for the cognitive, personal and social development of middle-class children. The second section analyses differences and tensions between managers and professionals working in the private sector and those in the public sector concerning educational goals and views on social mix. The conclusion emphasises the importance of understanding middle-class parents' values and strategies, both to refine sociological explanations and to re-orient educational reform.