Do Intrafamily Class Differences Make a Difference to Public School Choice-Making Processes? A Case of Chinese–Japanese Intermarried Middle-Class Mothers in Japan

Abstract

This paper explores how middle-class mothers’ involvement in and how the meanings of a public school choice are shaped by the class differences in cultural capital and economic capital between the mother and father within one family. It examines the practices of choosing a public school that shapes a middle-class mother, rather than the school choices of middle-class parents as an educational practice that shapes a middle-class child. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 12 women from Chinese–Japanese interethnic middle-class families in urban Japan, this study also provides some preliminary insights into the interrelationships between class, gender, and ethnicity in the process of choosing a public school within a family.