Choosing Schools - Choosing Identities In London

This study delineates the experiences of immigrant families living in London as they enter London’s educational marketplace and as they choose a school for their children. The study portrays the process of educational choice from their perspective, highlighting their positioning in the educational marketplace and the significance of their skills and resources as educational consumers. The findings reveal eight types of capitals that these families draw on as they engage with the education market, and highlights the development that occurred in the choosers’ consumerist skills over time. A central theme in this study is the role of the immigrant comunity in the choice of school, and the resulting occurrence of segregation in education. ‘Choosing schools – choosing identities’ stands for the main argument of this study which states that the choice of school, as an act of consumerism, represents the choosers’ collective identities, and at the same time plays a significant role in reinventing these identities.