School Reputation: An Analysis of an Elusive Term in the Greek Lower Secondary System through Parents’ “Voices”

Abstract

ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to describe the characteristics of school reputation of five lower secondary schools located in the sixth largest city in Greece, as it emerges from the views and experiences of parents, and how it shapes school choice. To this end, 63 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents of children attending the last grade of nine adjacent primary schools, constituting a local education quasi-market. Parental responses were analyzed using thematic content analysis. We found that school reputation depends on the social characteristics of the broader area, student academic performance, teachers’ characteristics, and school infrastructure. Moreover, parents exercise school choice, although this is formally prohibited in Greece, using school’s reputation as the main criterion of selection. The usual pattern of choice is the avoidance of schools with a negative reputation, rather than the active selection of schools with positive reputation. To build knowledge on school reputation, parents mostly rely on social networks and personal experience.