Perspectives on the Sociology of Education

Cynthia Levine-Rasky is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Her current and proposed research concerns the intersections of gender, race/ethnicity, and class among parents involved in choosing schools for their children. This research is related to the rise in studies of power as expressed through masculinity, whiteness, and middle-class living, rather than to research concerning oppression and marginality (women, racialized groups, and the working-class). Levine-Rasky is interested in what makes some parents 'choose' a school, how their decisions are influenced by changes in the student population, and how, in turn, their decisions bring about the reproduction of social inequalities. Related issues are concerned with the social and political context in which schooling is regarded as a commodity out of which the parent/consumer must choose the 'best' for their child, and also what the 'best' means for parents. In tandem with these

questions, Cynthia is exploring the dynamics of Jewish identity.