抄録
In recent years, an increasing number of municipalities in Japan have introduced a small specially chartered school（SSCS） system, which is a type of school choice. Previous studies focus on the preference factors and social class related to parents ’school choice behavior and mainly use quantitative analysis to demonstrate these trends; however, the SSCS system has not been included in the scope of these studies. This study aims to reconsider the reality of parents who use school choice, with a focus on the decision-making process of parents in an SSCS. This study involved seven parents who chose an SSCS as a case study and analyzed their decision using TEM, which highlights both commonalities and diversities among individuals in the process over time. The results indicate that the attitudes of parents are wavering in the decision-making process, depending on how they obtained in- formation about the SSCS, the content of the information, and their motives for using the SSCS. This evidence suggests that parents do not necessarily want school choice from the start and may be changing through the consideration of school choice. Keywords: school choice, small specially chartered school, Trajectory Equifinality Modeling （TEM）, wavering attitudes
