The paper explores parental choice of specialized classes which are offered by some public schools in Czechia. Such classes feature a specific educational approach (Montessori, Waldorf) or an extended curriculum in certain subjects (music, languages, mathematics). Typically, specialized classes allow students to attend all lessons separately from their peers in regular classes at the same school, similarly to such phenomena in Finland (Berisha & Seppänen, 2017), Germany (Krieg, Stubbe, Nonte, & Haas, 2019), and Sweden (Lilliedahl, 2021). Although specialized classes enrich the landscape of educational choices, they may present a threat to educational equity by enabling tracking based on achievement or socioeconomic status (Varjo & Kalalahti, 2019).

In the past decade, Czechia has experienced a boom of specialized classes at the primary school level. Some of these classes have been found to be favoring middle-class pupils with no learning disabilities in their selection procedures or only admitting pupils whose parents can afford to pay hidden fees (Blažková, 2014; Straková & Simonová, 2015). Such fees are then used for hiring additional teaching staff, equipping classrooms with modern technologies, or providing other educational services not found in other classes at the same school (Smith Slámová, 2018). Thus, in addition to affecting the social composition of regular classes, Czech specialized classes may also be providing a different educational experience in areas unrelated to their declared focus. Given these concerns, it is important to explore why such classes are becoming an increasingly appealing educational option for Czech parents.

Research exploring parental choice of specialized classes in the Czech context has been mainly quantitative. Studies indicate that parents with a completed secondary school exit exam (‘maturita’) are more likely to consider a primary school with a special focus compared to parents without such an exam (Straková & Simonová, 2015). If parents perceive their child as talented, they are more likely to seek out a school with a special focus; however, this does not apply to the same extent to parents with lower educational attainment (ibid). Thus, it is not surprising that the children of educated parents tend to be overrepresented in some types of specialized classes (Greger & Soukup, 2014). As of now, there is a shortage of qualitative studies addressing parental choice of specialized classes in Czech primary schools. Little is known about the parents’ school choice criteria, their reasoning behind these criteria, the schools they consider, the timeline of their decision making, or their children’s characteristics that might influence the process. The present study aims to fill this gap by exploring the school choice process of parents who consider specialized classes as their child enters primary school.

Regarding the study’s implications for educational equity, the paper draws on Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction (1973). In addition, Annette Lareau’s (2003) concepts of “concerted cultivation” and the “accomplishment of natural growth” were employed to distinguish between various types of parenting styles and their possible role in the school choice process. Finally, the choice of methodology was influenced by Bowe, Gewirtz, and Ball’s (1994) call for greater contextualization of school choice research. As such, the study aims to capture the meanings that parents in various contexts of urban Czechia attach to different school characteristics, reflecting that parents can use the same words to refer to remarkably different ideas.

The research was supported by the Charles University Grant Agency (project no. 58420).

The study used the grounded theory research design to capture the dynamic nature of the school choice process (Charmaz, 2014; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). At the time of the submission, several waves of interviews with parents who were considering a specialized class had been completed and analyzed. The participants (n = 24) were recruited at school events, kindergartens, via class teachers, and through snowball sampling (Heckathorn, 1997). The initial six participants were chosen to represent diverse stages of the school choice process (before visiting schools, before enrolling, after enrolling) and to show interest in a variety of specialized classes. Next, participants were purposefully approached to illuminate unclear aspects of the emerging theory. The interviews, which lasted approximately 60-90 minutes, focused on: 1) school choice criteria and meanings attached to them, 2) school options considered, and 3) parent and child characteristics influencing the process. The interviews were recorded and transcribed continuously, followed by two stages of coding. During the open coding stage, the transcripts were coded line by line and the code names were continuously adjusted to match the evolving meaning behind them. Next, selective coding was used to identify potential relationships between the most prominent codes and categories that had emerged. Guided by memo writing, the interview questions evolved to explore the emerging relationships between categories, gradually shifting from child-related criteria to characteristics of the parents themselves. The parent interview data were triangulated with information posted on school websites and observation notes from school information meetings.

The results revealed that the parents’ choice of a specialized class was linked to various types of concerns they associated with the public schools, pertaining to the schools’ climate, socioeconomic composition, and pace of learning. Specialized classes assuaged such concerns through several assurance mechanisms: transparent vision, external oversight, student selection, and opportunities for parental involvement. Upon detailing how these assurance mechanisms provide parents with an illusion of control over their child’s educational experience, the paper discusses alternative steps the public schools could take to lessen parental fears of the public schools without stratifying the pupil population through specialized classes. While the Czech case is in many aspects specific (collection of hidden fees, decentralization of the curriculum), other European countries that feature specialized classes can learn about the risks of an unregulated spread of such classes. The study suggests that for education to fulfill its integrative function, school choice policies need to go hand in hand with measures promoting equity.

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