Host-Country Parent Perspectives on International Schooling: A study from Bahrain

Abstract

Despite the rapid growth in international schooling worldwide, little attention has been paid to understanding why parents choose this kind of schooling and what they believe their choice has meant for their child. Most saliently, the extant literature has not considered the views of Arab parents, although a number of GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries are seen as hubs of international schooling. This study explores international school choice in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Drawing on survey and interview data from Bahraini parents whose children attend international schools in Bahrain, this paper contributes to school choice literature, exploring what the parents see as the consequences of their choice. The concepts of acculturation strategies (Berry, 2003; Berry, 2005) and school choice as a technology of subjectification (Leyton & Rojas, 2017) are used to understand the social meaning of these parental decisions.