Karibayeva, Akmaral2024-06-112024-06-112024-04-15Karibayeva, A. (2024). Factors Influencing Parental Primary School Choice in Astana. Nazarbayev University Graduate School of Educationhttp://nur.nu.edu.kz/handle/123456789/7815The primary purpose of this study is to explore how parents with different incomes, educational backgrounds, and occupations navigate the process of primary school choice and the factors influencing it in the context of Astana, Kazakhstan. Additionally, this research attempts to identify the opportunities and challenges parents experience when deciding on the primary school selection process. The qualitative research study with semi-structured interviews aims to address the following research question and two sub-questions to achieve the study’s objectives: How do parents in Astana navigate the process of primary school choice? 1) What factors influence parental choice of primary school in Astana? 2) What opportunities and challenges do parents experience when selecting primary schools for their children in Astana? Three parents with contrasting socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds whose children studied at three different types of schools in Astana constituted multiple cases of the study. Within these cases, three main common themes emerged: parental involvement, navigating away from mainstream education, and embracing an international curriculum. This study contributes to social inequality research by examining parents’ cultural backgrounds and the interplay of various types of capital (Bourdieu, 1986) in parental decision-making in school choice. The study manifested that a working-class parent was dependent on what public education offered. Upper-middle-class parents greatly impacted their children’s school choice because of their significant cultural capital, making their navigation in the school choice process more like a strategy than a dependence.enAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesType of access: EmbargoBourdieu’s concept of capitalparentocracycosmopolitan nationalismsocial stratificationMaster's thesis