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White middle class parents, identities, educational choice and the urban comprehensive school: diemas, ambivilance and moral ambiguity
At a time when the public sector and state education (in the United Kingdom) is under threat from the encroaching marketisation policy and private finance initiatives, our research reveals white middleâclass parents who in spite of having the financial opportunity to turn their backs on the state system are choosing to assert their commitment to the urban stateârun comprehensive school. Our analysis examines the processes of âthinking and acting otherwiseâ, and demonstrates the nature of the commitment the parents make to the local comprehensive school. However, it also shows the parentsâ perceptions of the risk involved and their anxieties that these give rise to. The middleâclass parents are thus caught in a web of moral ambiguity, dilemmas and ambivalence, trying to perform âthe good/ethical selfâ while ensuring the âbestâ for their children