ABSTRACT
The interconnectedness of the family and educational achievement has been well documented as has the impact of education reforms on parental involvement and choice. The work of Basil Bernstein on 'personal and positional' families is also helpful in exploring the differences in parental roles. M. H. Metz noted the extent of Black localism in America, with Black American pupils not wanting to attend the integrated Magnet schools. The idea that 'home' is a region was reinforced in the interview with the Joyce family. They family are middle class and speak Welsh as their first language. For the middle classes choices are much more about the appropriateness of the university and the benefits to be gained from the whole experience. The use of social networks for the transmission of both actual and symbolic information is reliant on a similarity of 'taste', a case of moving in the same circles and aspiring towards the same goals of membership.
