Zergatik klase ertaineko hainbat gurasok Eskola Publikoa hautatzen dute? White flight-aren aurkako fenomenoa eta euskara. Kasu-azterketa bat.: Why do some middle class parents choose the Public School? The phenomenon against White flight and Euskera. A case study.

Abstract

School segregation, i.e. the different distribution of pupils according to personal or social characteristics, which affects social inequality, has been identified in recent years as one of the main problems of the Basque education system. It is emphasised that one of the main reasons for the segregation of schools in the Basque Country (BC) is the possibility for parents to choose their children's school, as this enables the phenomenon of white flight (WF). However, the anti-WF phenomenon also appears in academic literature. According to this, some middle-class families choose the public school out of progressive values. We have carried out this research to see if this anti-WF phenomenon also exists in the BC. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to analyse the anti-WF phenomenon in the BC. In other words, using a qualitative methodology to describe the main arguments of parents in BC when choosing a school for their children, this case study was based on a population of 10,000 inhabitants with only two schools (public and subsidised). For this purpose, we interviewed parents from both schools (n=9) and used NVivo Release software to analyse the information received. The results show, on the one hand, a large number of official documents  dealing with school inclusion and segregation in the political-administrative sphere and, on the other hand, the fact that parents from the middle socio-economic level choose public schools not only because of leftist values but also to defend the Basque language. The anti-WF movement observed in the literature appears together the attachment to the Basque language in the case of BC.