How Can School Compensate for Home Disadvantage?: The Role of Schooling on Equalizing Social Distinctions

Abstract

Explaining the social function of schooling through maintaining, reproducing and increasing inequalities does not provide a clear framework for what can be done to help the disadvantaged benefit from education. In order to break this vicious circle of describing deficiencies and perpetuating, it is necessary to focus more on the recovery and compensatory function of education. This qualitative study, conducted with grounded theory, explores mechanisms within schools that can compensate for disadvantages that arise outside of school. These mechanisms were defined through the data obtained in a small city in Turkey from interviews focusing on the schooling practices of 35 educators, 19 of whom had administrative backgrounds and 16 of whom were teachers. The compensatory function of schooling operates in a gradual process of supporting the students to engage in school and make them active in school. In the inclusion process, all the student’s shortcomings are ignored and the student is seen as neutral. In the support phase, macro reformist and central policies are ignored, and support is rather individualized and concretized. This analysis suggested that strengthening compensatory role of schooling could help overcome barriers that students from disadvantaged backgrounds experience in educational attainment.

Keywords

• Compensatory education
• Inequalities
• Reproduction
• Social Function of Schooling

Okul Sosyal Çevreden Kaynaklı Dezavantajlı Durumları Nasıl Telafi Edebilir?: Eğitimin Sosyal Ayrımları Eşitlemedeki Rolü

Öz

Okulun sosyal işlevini eştisizlikleri sürdüren, yeniden üreten ya da artıran rolleri üzerinden açıklamak, dezavantajlıların eğitimden yarar sağlamaları için neler yapılabileceği konusunda net bir çerçeve ortaya koymaktan uzaktır. Bu eksiklikleri tanımlama ve sürdürmeyle ilgili var olan döngüyü kırmak ve eğitimin iyileştirici ve telafi edici işlevine odaklanma çerçevesinde kurgulanan bu çalışma gömülü teori ile yürütülen nitel bir çalışma olup, okul dışından kaynaklı dezavantajları telafi edebilecek okul içi mekanizmaları araştırmayı amaçlamaktadır. Bu mekanizmaları tanımlamak için 19’u yönetici ve 16’sı öğretmen olmak üzere toplam 35 eğitimcinin eğitsel pratiklerine odaklanan görüşmeler gerçekleştirilmiştir. Görüşmelerden elde edilen verilerin çözümlemesi sonucunda ulaşılan bulgular eğitimin telafi edici işlevinin öğrencilerin okula katılmasını sağlamak ve okulda etkin hale gelmelerini desteklemek şeklinde aşamalı bir süreçte gerçekleştiğini göstermiştir: Dahil etme ve destekleme. Dahil etme aşamasında öğrencilerin tüm eksiklikleri göz ardı edilmekte ve öğrenci nötr bir varlık olarak görülmektedir. Destekleme aşamasında ise merkezi politikalar göz ardı edilmekte, destek uygulamaları bireyselleştirilip, somutlaştırılmaktadır. Bu analiz çerçevesi, eğitimin telafi edici rolünün güçlendirilmesinin, dezavantajlı kesimlerden gelen öğrencilerin eğitsel katılım süreçlerinde deneyimledikleri engellerin üstesinden gelmelerinde işlevsel olabileceğini ortaya koymuştur.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Telafi edici eğitim
• Eşitsizlik
• Yeniden üretim
• Okulun sosyal işlevi

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