Parents’ preferences in choosing a school for children: a case study

Abstract

This quantitative study sets out to examine the relationship between parents' economic and cultural capital and their school choice preferences for their children. Bourdieu's cultural reproduction thesis, with a little changes and adaptation, is utilized as the theoretical framework. The sample of study consists of 339 students' parents in Mashhad, Iran. In general, school choice preference are classified as follows: (1) personal characteristics of school instructional staff, (2) professional qualifications of instructional staff, (3) educational and administrative features of school, (4) religious features, and (5) physical facilities. The results revealed that there is a relationship between parents' economic and cultural capitals and school choice preferences. As the economic and cultural capitals raises, parents tend to pay more attention to choose a school for their children. The study indicated that physical facilities are the primary preference for parents having high economic capital in choosing a school, and personal characteristics of instructional staff is the primary preference of school choosing for parents having high cultural capital. In addition, no relationship between religious features of school and parents' economic and cultural capital was discovered.