How rural schools in Czechia respond to parental preferences: Different approaches to students’ well-being

Abstract Czech parents place particular emphasis on ensuring the overall quality of life of their child when choosing a school. Our study shows how rural state schools understand this demand. A mixed approach was used in our research. In the first step, administrative data from all schools in municipalities with a population of up to 3,000 was used to shortlist 91 schools in demand by both catchment and non-catchment families. In the second step, socio-geographic data on type of municipality, online presentations, and other documents of the shortlisted schools were analysed. In the last step, case studies of 13 schools were prepared on the basis of parent surveys and interviews with stakeholders. We present case studies of three schools with different explicitly expressed approaches to satisfying parental preferences through a specific mix of care for well-being and valued characteristics of the rural environment. Our study adds to the existing literature on school choice and school leadership by describing specific developmental and/or marketing strategies of rural schools based on the real or perceived characteristics of the countryside.