Making Sense of School Choice Politics, Policies, and Practice under Conditions of Cultural Diversity

Why is choosing a school an urgent and self-defining task for some, and virtually meaningless for others? How is it possible that most parents contemplate only a single educational option in even the world's most marketized education system? Making Sense of School Choice provides an original analysis of the global rise of neoliberal education reform, focussing on the curriculum as the site for tensions both in the mass expansion of secondary education, and in attempts to contain these through a return to socially restrictive schooling. The investigation provides fresh insights into the ways families from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds understand and engage with school choice, as well as efforts by schools to manage their market position. Windle casts new light on the transnational networks through which political and corporate players, the media, and elite educational institutions dictate terms to socially exposed sites - those schools catering to minority and disadvantaged student populations.

Joel A. Windle is Assistant Professor at the Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities at the Federal University of Ouro Preto, Brazil, and Associate Senior Researcher at the Faculty of Education, Monash University, Australia.

1.Choice, Equity, and Diversity
2.School Choice as Policy Regime and Cultural Ideal
3.Socially Restricted Choice in Multicultural Neighborhoods
4.Socially Exposed Schooling: The Majority Experience
5.The Meaning of Choice for Schools: Curriculum and Market Hierarchies
6.The Many Lives of School Choice: Common Sense, Coercion and Control
7.Towards Democratic Schooling