Conference Program

Recent school admission policies in Catalonia, particularly those based on reserved quotas for vulnerable students, have contributed to a significant reduction in school segregation. However, these measures have shown more limited effects in schools with a high concentration of socially vulnerable students. In this context, a group school enrolment policy has emerged as an innovative instrument aimed at reversing this trend. The policy allows groups of non-vulnerable families, mostly from middle-class backgrounds, to enrol together in entry grades of early childhood and secondary education in schools serving highly disadvantaged populations. The policy assumes that school choice may acquire a collective dimension and that some segments of the middle classes may be willing to choose socially diverse schools when this decision is made in group and under specific institutional conditions.

Building on this context, this paper analyses how middle-class families who access socially disadvantaged schools become involved in and position themselves within school communities. More specifically, it examines the motivations underpinning these decisions, the social and emotional mechanisms shaping both school choice and school experience, and the organisational dynamics that emerge in schools following the arrival of these groups. More broadly, the paper contributes to debates on the role of middle-class families in desegregation policies and on the tensions that may arise between redistributive aims and processes of recognition and representation within school communities.

While school choice has often been understood as an individualised strategy through which middle-class families mobilise resources to maximise educational advantage (Ball, 2003; Van Zanten, 2003), a growing body of research suggests that, under certain conditions, school choice may also incorporate moral, political, and normative considerations linked to equity, diversity, and commitment to public education (Wilson, 2021; Posey-Maddox et al., 2014; Freidus, 2019). From this perspective, school choice is approached here as a situated social practice in which educational rationalities, moral commitments, emotional responses, and dynamics of social distinction are articulated simultaneously.

Methodologically, the paper draws on a qualitative research design combining in-depth interviews with families, school leaders, and policy actors, together with observation in school and community spaces linked to the implementation of the policy. This approach makes it possible to analyse both the meanings families attach to their decisions and the institutional responses developed by schools.

Findings show that participation in group school enrolments is shaped by a combination of normative commitments, emotional uncertainty, and collective dynamics. While many families frame their decision in terms of support for public education and social mixing, collective enrolment also helps reduce perceived risk and facilitates the mobilisation of social capital. At the same time, these processes may generate ambivalent effects within schools, including forms of social closure, differentiated patterns of participation, and organisational adaptations oriented toward retaining and attracting these families. Overall, the paper argues that group-based school enrolments may open innovative pathways toward school desegregation, but they also raise important questions about symbolic power, representation, and inequality within diverse school communities.