Risking It? Upper Social Class and School Choice in Finland

The uncertainties and risks families are facing concerning educational choice have both, local and global influences. The neo-liberal market mechanisms promoting educational choice in educational systems move the responsibility of successful choice increasingly on individuals. The individualized responsibility is partly replacing the ‘collective assurance against risk’, and as it increases individual risk, it might lead to social closure and enabling the strengthening of the ‘lines of social division in the community’. In the context of educational choice this touches upon the discourse around choice and distinction between social classes. Despite the privileged educational trajectories can still be obtained by context-relevant use of economic, social and cultural capital, the changes in the educational provision and basis of selection to prestigious institutions produce new arenas for competition. This challenges the privileged position of upper-class children in the competition of the best education available, and makes examining their educational choices relevant.

The aim was to examine the educational discourse of the upper-class parents of children entering lower-secondary school, and investigate how their hopes and fears regarding their children’s education intertwine both with the considered risks and their trust in the Finnish education system. The data consist of semi-structured interviews conducted in Finland and France (Vantaa, Espoo, Paris) with parents (n=19) who have experience on educational policies and practices in Finland and abroad, and as contrasting data, interviews with parents with no such international experience (n=78). The interviews were analysed by using qualitative content analyses. Preliminary results show that parents trust and value Finnish education and especially the value-base behind it. Still, their conceptions regarding competition, uncertainties, risk and the definitive nature of educational choices seem to have absorbed some ‘international fears’. This contributes to the construction of the social reality and subtle social distinctions in the Finnish school choice space.