Abstract
The choice of school for the secondary school sets the course for the future academic and professional career. This study clarifies who is the main decision maker in the choice of school based on an empirical survey using a questionnaire in which 828 parents from southern Lower Austria participated. In accordance with the literature, 618 parents state that they made the educational choice together with their children, with interesting significant subgroups regarding the gender of the child and the parents, the education of the parents, the siblings’ success and the parents’ educational aspirations.
Highlights
The transition from primary to secondary school is a formative event for the entire family system and an important milestone in the educational careers of children (Griebel, 2004; Liegmann & Lumer, 2004; Schumacher, 2004).In international comparison, this transition is relatively early in Austria, at around ten years of age
Is the final decision preceded by a long period of preliminary reflection with many discussions within the family? Do the parents make the decision without involving the child or should the pupils decide independently for a particular school? To be able to evaluate these and other important criteria adequately, the following research-led question was developed: Who is the main decision maker in the choice of the future school?
The significance of the individual variables was determined with the help of χ2 tests and the differences were worked out by means of cross tables. With regard to those involved in the choice of school, with the categories “parents decide alone”, “child decides alone” or “parents and child decide together”, significant differences are being determined in the type of secondary school based on the 808 responses (χ2(2) = 12,365, p = .002)
Summary
The transition from primary to secondary school is a formative event for the entire family system and an important milestone in the educational careers of children (Griebel, 2004; Liegmann & Lumer, 2004; Schumacher, 2004). In international comparison, this transition is relatively early in Austria, at around ten years of age. It can be assumed that parents are still clearly involved in the decision-making process, possibly even make the decision without involving the child (Griebel & Niesel, 2018) Their personal wishes and ideas, the so-called educational aspirations about the child’s further educational path, are important for the choice of a suitable secondary school. The reason for this is relatively unanimous that it is not yet possible at such an early stage to predict future school success with any certainty (Koch, 2006). Böhnel (1993) emphasizes that the time of selection after the age of 10 is too early, since reliable school career prognoses cannot be realized in a stable manner due to the fact that intelligence development is not fully completed (Böhnel, 1993)
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