Private and Public Schools Choice in Tehran: The Role of Family Attitude and Cultural Capital

A. Shokri, M. A.

M. Monadi, Ph D

This research was undertaken to investigate Tehrani families’ attitude towards selection of public and private schools. Purposive sampling was used and the sample comprised parents of primary school boys in districts 1 and 19 of Tehran. In this qualitative research, the obtained information from 12 interviews was analyzed through content analysis. The results indicated that parents chose public schools due to their high efficiency, low cost of school fees, and schools’ being in vicinity. In addition, for the families which selected private schools, educative aspect was more important than academic aspect. Parents had different attitudes and parents’ cognition was an important factor in the formation of the attitudes. Nevertheless choice of schools was affected by families’ cultural capital. In fact, families with higher cultural capital compared to economic and social capital, had greater investment in their children’s education.

Key words: attitude, family capital, choice, public school, private school