Social mix in neighbourhood and school? Parental school choice and its impact on educational segregation

在德国和其他欧洲城市，学校隔离目前是一个社会空间和教育方面的关键挑战。由于小学尤其对社会流动进程具有重要影响，分析小学中的种族隔离对城市地理研究非常重要：学校隔离不仅通过构成效应加剧儿童的受教育机会，而且还影响社会互动，加剧儿童和家长处理社会和种族多样性的问题。这项研究建议的出发点是，不仅在邻里一级，而且在较小的空间范围内，特别是在教育组织中，社会空间两极分化加剧。居住隔离和学校隔离是紧密相连的。然而，后者大多超过前者，因此是加剧社会空间不平等的主要驱动力。在幼儿园和小学中已经可以看到高度的社会和种族隔离。由于家长(社会)有选择性地选择学校，在城市混合居民区的幼儿园和小学也可以发现高度隔离--这说明了这一专题的高度意义。到目前为止，关于居住和学校隔离之间的相互作用的地理研究只有很少一部分。这项研究提案试图填补这一空白。该提案的主要目的是对驱动因素以及住宿和学校隔离之间的相互作用进行理论上的、系统的分析。因此，该项目有助于增进对教育地理与邻里研究之间迄今较少审查的接口的认识。作为个案研究，从北莱茵-威斯特伐利亚的一个大城市选择了一个社区，该社区似乎特别适合于分析父母选择学校的决定因素和机制。这个社区包括五所小学。他们的社会和族裔构成严重背离彼此，但也偏离了邻里的小规模社会空间构成。在此案例研究的基础上，分析了个体特征、(当地)信息来源和网络的相互作用、小学概况和信息政策的发展及其对家长择校做法的影响。在德国的背景下，第一次将定量和定性的经验数据结合起来，从而既可以说明家长的择校策略和学校隔离的程度和发展，也可以仔细审查潜在的动机和考虑。该项目结合了对五所不同小学的家长进行的定量调查、深入的定性家长访谈和专家访谈，使人们能够全面了解学校和住所分离的结构、过程和机制。

School segregation is currently a socio-spatial and educational key challenge in German and other European cities. Since particularly primary schools have a crucial impact on processes of social mobility, analysing segregation in primary schools is of high importance for research in urban geography: School segregation does not only exacerbate children’s educational opportunities through compositional effects, it also impacts on social interactions and aggravates children’s and parents’ dealing with social and ethnic diversity. Starting point of this research proposal is the aggravation of socio-spatial polarization not only on the neighbourhood level but also on a smaller spatial scale and in particular in educational organisations. Residential and school segregation are strongly interlinked. However, the latter mostly exceeds the former and is thus a main driver in reinforcing socio-spatial inequalities. High levels of social and ethnic segregation become already visible in kindergartens and primary schools. Due to parents’ (socially) selective school choices, high levels of segregation can also be identified in those kindergartens and primary schools located in mixed urban neighbourhoods - which illustrates the high significance of this topic. So far, there is only a small number of geographical research studies on the interplay between residential and school segregation. This research proposal seeks to fill this gap. The proposal’s main aim is the theoretically based, systematic analysis of the drivers and the interplay between residential and school segregation. The project thus contributes to an advancement of knowledge as regards the so far less examined interface between the geography of education and neighbourhood research. As a case study, a neighbourhood from a large city in North Rhine-Westphalia was selected which seems to be particularly suitable to analyse the determinants and mechanisms of parental school choice. The neighbourhood includes five primary schools. Their social and ethnic composition strongly deviates from each other but also from the small-scale socio-spatial composition of the neighbourhood. Based on this case study, the interplay of individual characteristics, (local) information sources and networks, and the development of primary school profiles and information policies as well as their impact on parental school choice practices are analysed. For the first time in the German context, quantitative and qualitative empirical data is combined allowing both to illustrate the extent and development of parents’ school choice strategies and school segregation and to scrutinize the underlying motivations and considerations. The project is based on a combination of a quantitative survey among the parents in five different primary schools, in-depth qualitative parent interviews, and expert interviews, which enables a comprehensive understanding of the structures, processes and mechanisms of school and residential segregation.