Middle-Class School Choice in the Urban: Educational Campaigning for a Public School

What is it about?

Educational campaigning has received relatively little attention in the academic literature. This chapter draws on an ethnographic study of long-term and organised urban campaigns that are collectively lobbying the Victorian State Government in Australia, for a new public high school to be constructed in their neighbourhood (Rowe 2014, 2015, 2016).1 I draw on these campaigns—not to ascertain a simplistic response as to whether they require a school or not—but rather to make important contributions for theorising middle-class school choice within the urban space. It is important to note that in this chapter I draw on research to represent a distinctly Australian perspective, and yet this perspective is couched within an urban lens. Australia is a geographical landscape that is well known for its vast distances, its rurality and remoteness, and this impacts on schooling in myriad ways (Collins et al. 2000; Gale et al. 2015). In Australia, whether a school is rural or remote is a key indicator of school-level disadvantage, an indicator that is measured and presented via a numerical ‘score’ for school choosers (see, www.myschool.edu.au). Residents living in Australian rural areas retain far fewer options when it comes to ‘local’ secondary schools (Angus 2013; Doherty et al. 2013). Indeed, overarching government policy maintains that a local school—or one that is reasonably accessible from your place of residence—is a school located within 80 km from your home (ACARA 2014). This is relevant for thinking through the arguments that I present in this chapter.

Featured Image