All in the mix

All in the mix: Race, class and school choice considers how parents choose secondary schools for their children and makes an important intervention into debates on school choice and education. The book examines how parents talk about race, religion and class in the process of choosing. It also explores how parents' own racialised and classed positions, as well as their experience of education, can shape the way they approach choosing schools. Based on in-depth interviews with parents from different class and racialised backgrounds in three areas in and around Manchester, the book shows how discussions about school choice are shaped by the places in which the choices are made. It argues that careful consideration of choosing schools opens up a moment to explore the ways in which people imagine themselves, their children and others in social, relational space.
An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.

Bridget Byrne is Professor in Sociology at the University of Manchester Carla De Tona is an independent researcher

Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 2 Unequal choosing 3 Imagining places 4 Choice, what choice? 5 Schooling fears 6 Evaluating the mix: negotiating with multiculture 7 Conclusions Appendix One: Participants Bibliography