On School Choice and Social Class: a response to Ball,Bowe and Gewirtz

The work of Ball, Bowe and Gewirtz is probably the most important research to be published on the implications of recent ‘school choice’ reforms in England and Wales. One of their most notable conclusions points to the relationship between social class and school choice. Their conclusions are challenged on methodological grounds. First, it is not clear that their qualitative method can support the generalisation about class and choice which they make. However, even as regards more modest conclusions, difficulties arise with the operationalisation of their concepts. For the details of how particular families are fitted into their analytical framework raises severe problems. This leads to their judgements about the allocation of families to categories being controversial, hence undermining even localised conclusions about social class and school choice. Drawing on this analysis, general lessons are sketched for the conduct of qualitative research and its reporting to the research community.