School choice is a debated issue in many countries, both in Europe and in the rest of the world. Currently much research focuses on the impact of private schools on school choice, provoked for instance by the case of the Swedish free schools. However, the pursuit of public governance regimes such as new public management has also led to an increased focus on school choice and marketization inside the public school system.

This paper, based on research reported in Bomholt & Rasmussen (2019) will contribute to research on school choice within the public system. In urban settings, where many schools are typically within reasonable distance from the family home, the scope for school choice is considerable, although different factors may limit the possibilities (Burgess et al, 2011). I discuss parents’ initial choice of school choice across school districts in the Danish city of Aalborg, focusing especially on parent motivations and the social contexts of choice.

In the Danish public school system the ‘Folkeskole’ is the integrated school for the primary and lower secondary level. The organisation and curriculum of the Folkeskole is regulated through national legislation, but schools are managed and funded by municipalities. Folkeskole students are traditionally recruited from the local neighborhood, and each school has its own geographical district decided by the municipality. Over the last decades municipalities have increasingly allowed parents to choose school s across school districts. Also national legislation concerning ‘free school choice’ has been introduced, allowing parents to choose across the borders of municipalities.

The paper draws on two types of frameworks. One is empirically based research on school choice in different European countries, which has tried to identify the most important motives and factors for school choice in different contexts (Altrichter et al, 2011; Ball, Bowe and Gewirz, 1996; Burgess et al, 2011; Malmgren, Andersson and Bergsten, 2013). Research has also highlighted the different types of knowledge that parents draw on in the process of school choice, distinguishing for instance between cold and hot knowledge (Ball and Vincent, 1998).

The more general framework is the conceptualization of rationalities in and consequences of social action developed by critical social theory, for instance Habermas (1981). This concerns how parents’ motives relate to communicative or strategic rationalities and to the balance between system and lifeworld.    

The empirical study concerns the Danish city of Aalborg. It focuses on school choice within the public school system and on choices made when children start schooling. On the basis of statistical information from the municipal school administration, three schools were identified are often chosen by parents from other school districts in the city. Through the school management parents coming from other school districts were contacted, and for each of the three schools five parents were interviewed about their motivations, sources of information and the choice process. In the analysis, the accounts given by the parents are related to other Danish research on school choice (Epinion, 2017) and to the frameworks mentioned above. The analytical approach strives to combine cognitive respect (Berger, 1974) in the representation of parent arguments and motives with critical attention to limitations and contradictions.

Among motives for the choice of school most parents emphasized the geographical accessibility and the presence of siblings or friends in the schools as part of a secure framework for a good life for children and parents. As presented by the parents this framework had both a practical and a value dimension. The practical dimension concerned the fabric and time structure of everyday life, not least the issue of transport to and from school. The value dimension was a question of being part of meaningful local communities, in and around school. Decisions involved concern for the well-being of children, and there is a symbolic marking of values such as community, friendship, freedom and security. Thus, the practical and logistical concerns are parts of a broader communicative rationality. Some parents were motivated by concern about the types of students attending schools. The presence of parents with fewer resources and bi-lingual students in their own school district was mentioned as a motive for choosing other schools. The reasons were not mainly concern about achievement levels but rather fear of the absence of social cohesion and common cultural values. This can be seen as the dark side of the emphasis on meaningful local communities, leading to exclusion of some groups from the community. Especially one of the schools seemed to attract parents who emphasized the level of academic achievement. The parents choosing this school had studied official documentation as part of the choice process and they further emphasized order and leadership in the school. For these parents local community were less important. The choice of school, with the institutional frameworks, sources of information, motives and social relations involved, is part of the development of the relationship between system and life-world in everyday life.

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