School choice and the Natural Science Program

• Abstract: In Chapter 3, written together with MimmiBarmark, we try to estimate the extent to which students’choices are guided and restricted by structural and symbolicboundaries, in order to point out the possible reasons forschool segregation between the different Natural Scienceschools. The analysis is divided into seven steps and basedprimarily not only on survey data, but also on interviewswith students with high enough grades to be accepted towhat we call “high-threshold” schools. Our results show thatit is not primarily previous school achievement that guidesand restricts students’ school choices; students’ feelings ofbelonging are at least as important. Feelings of belongingare particularly important for native-born Swedish studentswho choose a high-threshold school, which leads us to theinterpretation that it is these members of this student groupwho are the significant agents of self-segregation.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Sociologi -- Sociologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Sociology -- Sociology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

ethnicity

immigrant background

school segregation

school choice

Sociology of education

Sweden

Publication and Content Type

kap (subject category)

ref (subject category)