The intentionality, perceptions and strategies of parents with special-needs children who are choosing high school educational pathways
Ever since the Parent Report, the Quebec school system has allowed an academic choice between two education networks: public and private. However, for many parents of children with disabilities or learning or adjustment difficulties, this choice brings into play a variety of constraints (socioeconomic, family-related, etc.). Our study combines an interactionist-inspired approach to school choice (van Zanten, 2009) with a life-course approach. Based on a comprehensive and interpretive stance, the inductive analysis of semi-structured interviews uncovers how various mechanisms inherent in the high school choice process (e.g., distinct resources, subjective perceptions, and territorial constraints) can generate significant social inequality by boiling down these children’s social and educational potential and future to their difficulties.