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Middle-class choice of selective schools and classes at the elementary school level
Smith Slámová, Radka ; Straková, Jana (advisor) ; Šeďová, Klára (referee) ; Veselý, Arnošt (referee)
Middle-class choice of selective schools and classes at the elementary school level Radka Smith Slámová ABSTRACT Fear of downward mobility has led middle-class parents to seek new strategies that enable them to achieve social reproduction through formal schooling. In the Czech educational context, middle- class parents' school choice strategies as their child enters the increasingly diversified elementary school level have not been explored. The dissertation aims to detail why middle-class parents in various contexts across the country consider choosing a selective school/track. Drawing on the grounded theory research design and 28 in-depth interviews, I depict middle-class parents' circumstances, assumptions, and perceptions surrounding the choice of a selective school/track in the public school system. The results revealed that parents' choices were primarily informed by their negative view of a typical Czech school - a view constructed in the light of their memories of their own schooling, "hot" knowledge from their parental networks, their own child-rearing convictions, and experiences with their child's preschool institutions. The parents expected that their family's supposed incongruence with the environment of public schools would disadvantage their child in a typical elementary school, despite them...
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Bilingual classes on primary level from the perspective of educational equity. Case studies.
Smith Slámová, Radka ; Straková, Jana (advisor) ; Dvořák, Dominik (referee)
The diploma thesis compares learning conditions in bilingual and regular classrooms in two primary schools from the perspective of educational equity. The first chapter summarizes available information on bilingual classes in the Czech public school system (their prevalence, licensing conditions, and financing). The second chapter describes tracking in the Czech basic school system and its implications for educational inequity. The final chapter of the theoretical part describes the main school factors influencing student achievement in the Czech Republic and abroad. The empirical part presents case studies of two public schools that run a CLIL class. The schools differ in terms of the administrator of the bilingual class, target language, location, and financing of the class. The research compares regular and CLIL classes at each school with regards to admission procedures, pupil characteristics, learning conditions, teacher expectations, teaching methods, and other aspects influencing student achievement. The results reveal that bilingual and regular classes at both schools differ most in terms of socioeconomic compositition and student achievement, giving the pupils of bilingual classes an unfair advantage. However, the classes also differ in other aspects, of which the significance to parents...
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