The Reproduction of Exclusion and Disadvantage: Symbolic Violence and Social Class Inequalities in ‘Parental Choice’ of Secondary Education

Following the enhancement of parental choice through the 1988 Education Act, an increasing body of educational literature, aside from describing parent wants and the implications for internal organisation and external marketing, includes criticism of it as yet another way of privileging the middle class over the working class (eg. Halstead, 1994). This paper argues that parental choice is a social field where social relations are reproduced, reinforced and mediated. As such, it is an important area for sociological study which, to date, has been neglected. Drawing on some preliminary analysis of a research study, this paper critically examines the merits of using the work of Pierre Bourdieu to facilitate a sociological analysis of parental choice. The paper concludes that parental choice is a new aspect of social reproduction that clearly demonstrates Bourdieu's explanation of the interrelation between ‘habitus’ and social ‘field’.