147 INTEREST, NOT PREFERENCE: DEWEY AND REFRAMING THE CONCEPTUAL VOCABULARY OF SCHOOL CHOICE Terri S. Wilson School of Education University of Colorado Boulder Abstract. School choice positions parents as consumers who select schools that maximize their preferences. This account has been shaped by rational choice theory. In this essay, Terri Wilson contrasts a rational choice framework of preferences with John Dewey’s understanding of interest. To illustrate this contrast, she draws on an example of one parent’s school decision-making process. Dewey’s concept of interest offers an alternative conceptual vocabulary attentive to the complex, value-laden, and evolving process of choosing a school. Her analysis considers how schools might not just appeal to the preexisting preferences of families, but might instead actively shape those interests to democratic ends. Introduction Schools of choice often distinguish their unique features, missions, and curric- ula from traditional schools. For example, some families may be drawn toward a Montessori school; others may prefer a STEM-focused school, or one that empha- sizes dual-language immersion. Instead of a “one size fits all” approach, choice policies offer different educational products to meet the distinct needs, preferences, and interests of families. Parents, in this account, are positioned as “citizen con- sumers” who select schools that best match (or “maximize”) their preferences. 1 Schools, in turn, have market incentives to not only to be “better than” other schools, but to differentiate themselves from the competition and “find their niche — a specialized segment of the market to which they can appeal and attract support.” 2 This account of choice has largely been shaped by the insights of rational choice theory. One of the primary theoretical assumptions of rational choice is that individuals have — and act on the basis of — preferences. In this framework, parents have stable and ordered preferences about the schools their children should attend. When choosing a school, they examine the available alternatives, weigh preferences against constraints, and make a choice. As Laura Hamilton and Kacey Guin have argued, several conditions need to be in place for choice to work as planned. Parents must (1) have preferences about education and gather information about available schools; (2) make trade-offs between the different attributes of these schools; and (3) choose the school that best fits their preferences. 3 Still 1. Mark Schneider and Jack Buckley, “What Do Parents Want from Schools? Evidence from the Internet,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 24, no. 2 (2002): 133. 2. John Chubb and Terry Moe, Politics, Markets, and America’s Schools (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1990), 55. 3. Laura S. Hamilton and Kacey Guin, “Understanding How Families Choose Schools,” in Getting Choice Right: Ensuring Equity and Efficiency in Education Policy, ed. Julian R. Betts and Tom Loveless (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2005). EDUCATIONAL THEORY Volume 66 Number 1–2 2016 © 2016 Board of Trustees University of Illinois