Conference Agenda
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Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 19th Aug 2026, 21:29:13 EET
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28 SES 12 A: Teacher Agency and School Choice
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28. Sociologies of Education
Paper From Aspirations to Being Channelled: Subject Teachers’ Educational Trajectories University of Eastern Finland, Finland Presenting Author:This paper examines how subject teachers’ educational trajectories are formed over time through the interaction of individual orientations and structural conditions. Focusing on lower secondary subject teachers in Finland, we explore how becoming a subject teacher unfolds across the life course, and how institutional frameworks, accessibility of education, and biographical circumstances shape educational decision-making. The paper addresses two research questions:
To address these questions, we draw on the concept of educational trajectories, understood as long-term, temporally structured processes embedded in specific institutional and social contexts. Rather than approaching trajectories as predefined routes or linear progressions, we conceptualise them as life-course formations in which educational choices, transitions, and reorientations are negotiated over time. From this perspective, trajectories emerge through the interplay of individual interests and orientations, institutional arrangements of education systems, and changing life-course conditions. The theoretical framework is informed by sociological and life-course-oriented research, which emphasises that educational pathways are not simply the outcome of individual preferences or rational choice. Instead, they are shaped within institutional structures and socially differentiated opportunity contexts. Educational systems both enable and constrain trajectories by influencing the timing, sequencing, and perceived feasibility of educational choices. Guidance practices, admission structures, and the accessibility of study opportunities play an important role in directing how trajectories unfold. Within this framework, we argue that becoming a subject teacher cannot be understood as a uniform or linear process. Subject teacher trajectories develop through ongoing negotiations between personal orientations and the structural conditions of teacher education and labour markets. These negotiations are influenced by prior educational experiences, the availability of teacher education programmes, institutional selection mechanisms, and broader socio-economic conditions that affect how secure or realistic teaching appears as a career option. By examining subject teachers’ trajectories in the Finnish context, the paper contributes to European and international discussions in the sociology of education on how educational careers are shaped within highly institutionalised education systems. While the Finnish case is specific in terms of its university-based teacher education model, the processes identified in this study resonate with wider European debates on educational inequalities, transitions, and professional formation. Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used The study is based on qualitative interview data collected from 23 qualified subject teachers working in lower secondary schools (grades 7–9) in different parts of Finland. The interviews form part of a broader research project on teachers’ careers and working conditions. All participants were working as subject teachers at the time of the interview, teaching a wide range of subjects, and had completed their teacher education in Finnish universities. The participants were born between 1964 and 1995, reflecting different educational cohorts and policy contexts. The interviews were semi-structured and focused on participants’ educational histories, key educational choices and transitions, motivations for entering teacher education, and reflections on alternative pathways. Interviews lasted between one and two hours, allowing for in-depth exploration of educational trajectories across the life course. The analysis proceeded in two stages. First, a thematic analysis was conducted to identify recurring themes related to educational choices, transitions, social background, institutional guidance, and perceived constraints and opportunities. The data were coded inductively, with particular attention paid to how participants described turning points, interruptions, and justifications for their choices. In the second stage, an ideal-type analysis was conducted to construct analytically distinct educational trajectories. Drawing on methodological literature on ideal types, the analysis focused on identifying recurring combinations of themes that characterised different ways of navigating educational trajectories into subject teaching. Each interview was assigned to one ideal type based on the dominant pattern in the participant’s narrative, even though individual trajectories often contained elements of more than one type. The resulting ideal types are not intended to represent individual teachers, but to synthesise key patterns that recur across diverse educational biographies. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings The analysis identifies three ideal-typical educational trajectories into subject teaching: an early-oriented trajectory, a re-oriented trajectory, and a trajectory shaped by circumstances. These trajectories are analytically conceptualised as aspirations, transitions, and being channelled into subject teaching. In the early-oriented trajectory, teaching is imagined as a desired profession at an early stage, and educational choices tend to follow a relatively coherent and goal-oriented path. In the re-oriented trajectory, teaching emerges more gradually through experimentation, re-evaluation, and experiences gained over time. In the trajectory shaped by circumstances, educational choices are more strongly structured by institutional constraints, accessibility of study options, guidance practices, and perceived labour market stability, with teaching becoming a realistic and secure alternative. Taken together, the findings show that becoming a subject teacher is not a linear process but a negotiated trajectory shaped through ongoing interactions between individual orientations and structural conditions. Educational systems and labour markets play an active role in shaping these trajectories, often through implicit forms of steering. By conceptualising trajectories as aspirations, transitions, and being channelled, the paper highlights how life-course dynamics and institutional arrangements intersect in producing different routes into subject teaching. References Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2012). Thematic analysis. In H. Cooper et al. (Eds.), APA handbook of research methods in psychology, Vol. 2: Research designs (pp. 57–71). American Psychological Association. Elder, G. H., Johnson, M. K., & Crosnoe, R. (2003). The emergence and development of life course theory. In J. T. Mortimer & M. J. Shanahan (Eds.), Handbook of the Life Course (pp. 3–19). Springer. Farges, G. (2025). Roughly in the middle: Variations in the subjective social status of teachers in France. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 46(4), 469–488. Maguire, M. (2001). The cultural formation of teachers’ class consciousness: Teachers in the inner city. Journal of Education Policy, 16(4), 315–331. Maguire, M. (2005). ‘Not footprints behind but footsteps forward’: Working-class women who teach. Gender and Education, 17(1), 3–18. Mombaers, T., Van Gasse, R., Vanlommel, K., & Van Petegem, P. (2023). ‘To teach or not to teach?’ An exploration of the career choices of educational professionals. Teachers and Teaching, 29(7–8), 788–820. Reay, D., Davies, J., David, M., & Ball, S. J. (2001). Choices of degree or degrees of choice? Class, ‘race’ and the higher education choice process. Sociology, 35(4), 855–874. Stapley, E., O’Keeffe, S., & Midgley, N. (2022). Developing typologies in qualitative research: The use of ideal-type analysis. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 21, 1–14. Tikkanen, J., Bledowski, P., & Felczak, J. (2015). Education systems as transition spaces. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 28(3), 297–310. Walther, A. (2009). ‘It was not my choice, you know?’ Young people’s subjective views and decision-making processes in biographical transitions. In I. Schoon & R. K. Silbereisen (Eds.), Transitions from School to Work (pp. 121–144). Cambridge University Press. Walther, A., Warth, A., Ule, M., & Du Bois-Reymond, M. (2015). ‘Me, my education and I’: Constellations of decision-making in young people’s educational trajectories. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 28(3), 349–371. Finnish context: Husu, J., & Toom, A. (2016). Opettajat ja opettajankoulutus – suuntia tulevaan. Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriö. Kansanen, P. (2012). Mikä tekee opettajankoulutuksesta akateemisen? Kasvatus & Aika, 6(2). Kosunen, S., Saari, J., Huilla, H., & Hienonen, N. (2024). Uupuvat opettajat: Rekrytointivaikeudet ja opettajasegregaatio Suomessa. Yhteiskuntapolitiikka, 89(3), 255–267. Nevala, A., & Nori, H. (2017). Osallisuuden vanhat ja uudet jakolinjat: Yliopisto-opiskelijoiden sosioekonomisen taustan muutokset ja koulutuksellinen tasa-arvo. In A. Toom et al. (Eds.), Toiveet ja todellisuus (pp. 335–363). Suomen kasvatustieteellinen seura. 28. Sociologies of Education
Paper Hidden Corners of Educational Marketization: Choice Logic and Lived Experiences of Rural Students in Private Secondary Schools East China Normal University, China, People's Republic of Presenting Author:This study examines the educational choices and lived experiences of rural students attending county-level private secondary schools in Enshi, Hubei (China), within the broader context of educational marketization in contemporary China. Unlike urban elite private schools that emphasize internationalization, prestige, and high-end branding, county-level private schools in rural and semi-rural areas adopt highly structured, quasi-military management, rigorous exam-oriented practices, and full-time boarding arrangements, attracting rural families despite high tuition fees that often exceed local household incomes. This paradox raises critical questions about the motivations, strategies, and constraints underlying rural households’ willingness to invest heavily in private education, as well as the implications of such choices for reproducing or alleviating educational inequality. Drawing on a qualitative methodological approach, this research combines in-depth, semi-structured interviews with ten rural students and their primary caregivers, participant observation of students’ daily life, community engagement during school holidays, and collection of school documents including admissions materials, policy statements, and promotional texts. Data were analyzed thematically through open coding, iterative comparison, and clustering of codes into emergent patterns, ensuring both rigor and reflexivity. The study’s analytical frameworks integrate Bourdieu’s concepts of economic, cultural, and social capital, his field theory, and social reproduction theory, allowing a nuanced examination of how rural families’ capital resources shape school choice, and how students negotiate identity, adaptation, and peer relationships within a quasi-urbanized private school environment. Findings indicate that rural families’ choices are primarily defensive and instrumental rather than aspirational pursuit of elite education. Confronted with thinly resourced public schools and declining trust in local education quality following school consolidations, families perceive private schools’ intensive, regimented management as a risk-mitigation mechanism, concentrating limited economic and social resources on exam performance and compliance with school routines. These investments often involve significant financial sacrifice, labor rearrangement, or debt, reflecting a calculated form of “self-rescue” under structural pressures. 农村学生的生活经历反映了适应、纪律与社会差异的复杂交织。学生将严格的课程安排和以表现为导向的日常纳入学业成就的必要条件，展现韧性、努力和战略投入。然而，经济资本的差异表现为消费相关的污名化、有限的社会融合以及课外机会的差异，而文化资本与城市中心学校规范的不匹配则造成双重边缘化。因此，学生们常常在乡村身份与城市学校期望之间徘徊，在归属感、文化认同和自我概念形成之间挣扎。 在结构层面，县级私立学校为少数学生提供了狭窄的向上流动，同时又加剧了更广泛的不平等。高额学费作为预选机制，排除最贫困家庭，而学术和社会竞争日益依赖经济和文化资本，进一步加剧潜在障碍。此外，积极进取的农村学生迁移到私立学校，抽走了本地公立学校的资源和有抱负的同龄人，加剧了农村教育赤字，扩大了城乡差距。因此，市场不再是公平教育的机制，而是作为资金不足的公共服务的替代品，将系统性差距转化为个体化的挑战。 总之，农村县级私立学校代表了受限且理性的“自我救助”策略，适用于在有限公立教育中挣扎的家庭，同时又重复并掩盖了结构性不平等。有效的教育公平需要对农村公立学校的基础质量和吸引力进行大量投资，为所有孩子创造稳定、有尊严且充满机会的教育环境，同时通过市场机制减轻代际间不平等的延续。本研究强调，需要将农村学生不仅视为市场化教育的被动接受者，更应视为复杂、分层教育领域中身份与理想积极协商者。 Methodology, Methods, Research Instruments or Sources Used This study adopts a primarily qualitative methodological approach to explore the perspectives and lived experiences of rural students and their families, aiming to uncover the complex logic behind educational choices. Qualitative methods were chosen because the study focuses on individual decision-making, internal experiences, and meaning-making, which cannot be fully captured by quantitative data. Using in-depth interviews and participant observation, the study examines the “how” and “why” of school selection and students’ subsequent experiences, while allowing emergent themes to surface dynamically. The research focuses on rural students enrolled in private county-level secondary schools in Enshi, Hubei, and their parents, with “rural” defined as students with household registration or long-term residence in towns or villages. Sampling combined purposive and snowball strategies: initially, 1–2 private schools enrolling rural students were identified through local networks. Within these schools, students meeting the criteria (rural background, non-affluent family) were invited to participate, and subsequent participants were recommended by initial interviewees. Planned interviews include 10–15 students and one primary parent per student, continuing until theoretical saturation is reached. Additionally, brief interviews with 2–3 teachers or administrators will provide supplementary perspectives. Data were collected through three main channels. First, semi-structured interviews with students (60–90 minutes) focused on family life, school choice decision-making, in-school adaptation (academics, discipline, social life, consumption), and psychological experiences; interviews with parents (45–60 minutes) focused on family economics, decision-making processes, educational investment, and expectations. All interviews were audio-recorded with consent and supplemented with field notes. Second, participant observation was conducted during 2–3 week periods in 1–2 typical rural source villages during school holidays, documenting home and community contexts and students’ routines. Third, school documents (admissions materials, policies, and promotional texts) were collected to analyze institutional positioning and discourse strategies. Data were analyzed thematically, involving repeated reading, open coding, clustering codes into potential themes (e.g., “risk calculation in school choice,” “consumption shame,” “time disciplining,” “urban–rural identity negotiation”), and refining themes through iterative comparison with the raw data. Analysis remained theoretically sensitive, engaging Bourdieu’s capital theory and educational equity frameworks, and sought disconfirming evidence to enhance credibility. Ethical considerations were rigorously observed. Informed consent was obtained from all participants, including minors and guardians, with guarantees of anonymity, confidentiality, and voluntary participation. Interviews followed the principle of minimal harm, and researchers maintained reflexivity regarding positionality and power relations. Conclusions, Expected Outcomes or Findings This study reveals the complex, tension-filled landscape of county-level private schools for rural students in a marketized educational context. Rural families’ high-cost investment is not a simple pursuit of “elite education” but a calculated, constrained self-rescue under structural limitations. Students’ experiences intertwine discipline, adaptation, and social differentiation, producing divergent effects at individual and structural levels. Family decision-making: Rural families’ choice of private schools reflects defensive educational investment under structural constraints rather than pursuit of elite schooling. Weak public-school resources and eroding trust after school consolidations make closed, quasi-military school management an “insurance mechanism” to safeguard children from perceived risks. Families focus on exam preparation, concentrating limited economic capital—even incurring debt—on strict schedules and academic rigor, often at the expense of individual well-being. The market substitutes for deficient public education, exposing systemic inequities. Student experiences: Students navigate disciplined adaptation and class-based differentiation. They internalize school routines as necessary for academic success, demonstrating resilience, yet economic disparities create hidden social boundaries. Rural students face consumption-related stigma and struggle to form deep peer connections. Cultural capital mismatches further marginalize them, as rural backgrounds are devalued and urban-centric school culture is partially internalized, resulting in dual marginalization. Structural implications: Private schooling creates limited mobility for a few while intensifying inequality. Exam training benefits only high-capacity students, while hidden barriers shaped by economic and cultural capital exclude most. The “siphoning” of talented rural students from public schools further weakens them, exacerbating urban–rural disparities and creating a cycle of market-dependent education. In sum, county-level private schooling is a rational, constrained “self-rescue.” While offering narrow mobility for a few, it converts geographic inequality into economic and cultural stratification, showing the market’s role as a substitute, not a remedy, for educational inequity. Sustainable equity requires strengthening rural public education to prevent intergenerational reproduction of inequality via market mechanisms. References Bourdieu, P. (1991). Language and symbolic power (J. B. Thompson, Ed.; G. Raymond & M. Adamson, Trans.). Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674510418. Bourdieu, P. (1997). Wenhua ziben yu shehui lianjin shǔ: Buerdiü fangtan lù [Cultural capital and social alchemy: Interviews with Pierre Bourdieu] (A. Bao, Trans.). Shanghai People’s Publishing House. ISBN 9787208025226. Brown, W. (2015). Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism’s stealth revolution. Zone Books. ISBN 9781935408536 Dewey, J. (2024). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education (N. Tampio, Ed.). Columbia University Press.ISBN 9780231210119 Du, L., Li, H. M., & Wang, W. J. (2021). Wenhua shijiao xia woguo nongcun xuexiao jiaoyu yanjiu chauyi — Cong wenhua chuanchuan dao wenhua shengchan[A cultural perspective on rural school education in China: From cultural inheritance to cultural production] [in Chinese]. Journal of Education, 17(04), 119–132. Friedman, M. (1962). Capitalism and freedom. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226264202 (40th anniversary ed.). Gaztambide-Fernández, R. (2009). What Is an Elite Boarding School. Review of Educational Research, 79(3), 1090–1128. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654309339500 Nhengu, D., Chikwature, F., & Marandure, M. (2025). The privatization conundrum in Zimbabwe: Uncovering the complexities of education privatization’s influence on equity, quality and inclusion. Ékwé International Journal of Igbo Scholars Forum for Socio‑Cultural Advancement, 18(2), 1–15. Retrieved from https://www.acjol.org/index.php/ekwe/article/view/6857 Organisation for Economic Co‑operation and Development. (2012). Public and private schools: How management and funding relate to their socio‑economic profile (PISA). OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264175006‑en Samuelson, P. A. (1954). The pure theory of public expenditure. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 36(4), 387–389. https://doi.org/10.2307/1925895 Wu, Y. X. (2020). Shehui fenceng shijiao xia de Zhongguo jiaoyu gongping: Hongguan qushi yu weiguan jizhi [Educational equity in China from the perspective of social stratification: Macro trends and micro mechanisms]. Nanjing Shifan Daxue Xuebao (Shehui Kexueban) [Journal of Nanjing Normal University (Social Science Edition)], (04), 18–35. Yin, Q. L. (2022). Nongcun jiaoyu jingzheng xingqi de luoji — Cong “dushu de liao” dao “buneng shu zai qipao xian”[The logic of rising competition in rural education: From “academic potential” to “not losing at the starting line”] [in Chinese]. China Youth Research, (11), 103–109+95. Ying, G. Consumption Patterns of Chinese Children. Journal of Family and Economic Issues 24, 373–379 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1027385427303 | ||