Parental expectation, social capital and school choice: Voices from a mixed-community village in tribal areas of Odisha, India

Based on the qualitative interview data from children and parents in a mixed-community village in tribal areas of Odisha, one of the eastern state of India, the paper examines how the parental perceptions and the context of their decision-making process, shape the choice for private schooling even they have limited income and government run schools have the existence in their walking distance. The paper also seeks to explain kind of mechanisms adopted by the parents, those who find difficulties to send their children for studying in private schools. The findings of the study report that some Mahanta and Sounti parents, who have better income, prefer to send their children to private schools. Some of the Mahanta and Sounti parents manage to provide private tuition and home-based learning environment as a result of their wider access to social capital. On the other hand, families belong to low socio-economic bracket particularly belong to tribal community keep sending their children to the government schools due to their limited income and incapacity to provide them any alternative schooling. Thus, educational choice practices seem to reproduce social inequality and reinforce social exclusion in the educational processes of school and the children belong to poor socio-economic status less gain from the schooling processes. While the study acknowledges the importance of social networks in school choice, the study also suggests to look at the context of structural factors, cultural contexts and parental practices when it comes to studying school choice in a multi-community field site.