THE ROLE OF CULTURAL CAPITAL IN EFL CLASSROOM

Year 2019, Volume: 8 Issue: 2, 83 - 104, 30.06.2019

Muhammed Salih Taşdemir

Abstract

The study aims to propose methods and techniques to be
used in the classroom to raise cultural capital level of students who come from
families of a low socio-economic background. The role of cultural capital in
EFL classroom can be considered important as the setting, teaching materials
and teachers can play a crucial role in providing students with cultural codes.
As teacher knowledge in these practices is also necessary, the study also aims
to determine cultural capital level of English language teachers in comparison
to teachers of several other fields. The study group consisted of 30 teachers,
half of which are teachers of English and the other half are from other fields.
A mixed method approach was adopted. For the collection of data, the cultural
capital scale developed by Avcı (2015) was used followed by semi-structured
interviews.  Data analysis was carried
out through SPSS for the quantitative data and, content analysis method for the
qualitative data. It was found that cultural capital level of English teachers
was not significantly different from that of the teachers of other fields, both
of which were high. Also, four dimensions were revealed in terms of the role of
cultural capital in EFL classroom.

Keywords

cultural capital; inequality in education; teacher knowledge

References

• Akbari, R. (2008). Transforming lives: Introducing critical pedagogy into ELT classrooms. ELT journal, 62(3), 276-283.
• Arun, Ö. (2009). Yaşlı Bireyin Türkiye Serüveni: Türkiye'de Yaşlı Bireyler Arasında Kültürel Sermaye Dağılımı. Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences, 8(1).
• Avcı, Y.E (2015). Öğretmenlerin Kültürel Sermaye Yeterliliklerinin İncelenmesi (PhD Dissertation). Institute of Social Sciences, Gaziantep University, Gaziantep.
• Bennett, T., & Silva, E. (2011). Introduction: Cultural capital—Histories, limits, prospects. Poetics, 39(6), 427-443.
• Bernstein, B. (1996). Pedagogy, symbolic control, and identity: Theory, research, critique. London: Taylor and Francis.
• Bodovski, K., Jeon, H., & Byun, S. Y. (2017). Cultural capital and academic achievement in post-socialist Eastern Europe. British Journal of sociology of Education, 38(6), 887- 907.
• Bourdieu, P. (1977). Cultural reproduction and social reproduction. InJ. Karabel & AH
• Bourdieu, P. (1979). La distinction. Critique sociale du jugement. Paris: Minuit.
• Bourdieu, P. (1986). “The Forms of Capital”. Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology Education, (Ed: John G. Richardson). New York: Greenwood Press
• Bourdieu, P. (1997). Toplumbilim Sorunları (Çev. Işık Ergüden). İstanbul: Kesit Yayıncılık.
• Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J. C. (1990). Reproduction in education, society and culture (Vol. 4). Sage.
• Brooker, L. (2015). Cultural Capital in the Preschool Years: Can the State ‘Compensate’for the Family?. Childhood with Bourdieu, 34-56.
• Burden, R., & Williams, M. (1997). Psychology for language teachers: A social constructivistapproach. Cambridge University Press.
• Celik, S., & ERBAY, Ş. (2013). Cultural Perspectives of Turkish ELT Coursebooks: Do Standardized Teaching Texts Incorporate Intercultural Features?. Education & Science/Egitim ve Bilim, 38(167).
• Çelikgöz, N. & Yıldızlı, H. (2013). İlköğretim Matematik Öğretmenlerinin Genel Öğretmenlik Davranışları Açısından Kendilerine Yönelik Yeterlilik Algıları (Ankara ili örneği). Researcher:Social Science Studies.(1). P.1-24.
• Çifçili, V. (2008). Dershane öğretmenlerinin öğretmen yeterlilik düzeyleri ve mesleki doyumları arasındaki ilişki. Hasan Ali Yücel Eğitim Fakültesi Dergisi, 5(2).Cheadle, J. E. (2008). Educational investment, family context, and children's math and reading growth from kindergarten through the third grade. Sociology of Education, 81(1), 1-31.
• De Graaf, N. D., De Graaf, P. M., & Kraaykamp, G. (2000). Parental cultural capital a educational attainment in the Netherlands: A refinement of the cultural capital perspective. Sociology of education, 92-111.
• DENİZ, A. G. K. (2003). Yazılı anlatım becerileri bakımından köy ve kent beşinci sınıf öğrencilerinin durumu. Türklük Bilimi Araştırmaları, 13(13), 233.
• DiMaggio, P. (1982). Cultural capital and school success: The impact of status culture participation on the grades of US high school students. American sociological review, 189-201.
• Domina, T. (2005). Leveling the home advantage: Assessing the effectiveness of parental involvement in elementary school. Sociology of education, 78(3), 233-249.
• Dumais, S. A. (2002). Cultural capital, gender, and school success: The role of habitus. Sociology of education, 44-68.
• Dumais, S. A. (2002). Cultural capital, gender, and school success: The role of habitus. Sociology of education, 44-68.
• Dülger, O. (2016). Evaluatıon of EFL Coursebooks Taught in Turkey Based on Teachers’ Vıews. Journal of Advances in English Language Teaching, 4(1), pp-1.
• Garton, S., & Graves, K. (2014). Identifying a research agenda for language teaching materials. The Modern Language Journal, 98(2), 654-657.
• Gür, B. S., & Çelik, Z. (2009). Türkiye’de millî eğitim sistemi: Yapısal sorunlar ve öneriler. Siyasat, Ekonomi ve Toplum Araştırmaları Vakfı, 1, 29-32.
• Jæger, M. M. (2009). Equal access but unequal outcomes: Cultural capital and educational choice in a meritocratic society. Social Forces, 87(4), 1943-1971.
• Kingston, P. W. (2001). The unfulfilled promise of cultural capital theory. Sociology of education, 88-99.
• Kraaykamp, G., & Van Eijck, K. (2010). The intergenerational reproduction of cultural capital: A threefold perspective. Social forces, 89(1), 209-231.
• Kumaravadivelu, B. (2006). Understanding language teaching: From method to postmethod. Routledge.
• Lamont, M., & Lareau, A. (1988). Cultural capital: Allusions, gaps and glissandos in recent theoretical developments. Sociological theory, 153-168.
• Møllegaard, S., & Jæger, M. M. (2015). The effect of grandparents’ economic, cultural, and social capital on grandchildren's educational success. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 42, 11-19.
• Norton, B. (2010). Identity, literacy, and English-language teaching. TESL Canada Journal, 28(1), 1.
• Parcel, T. L., Dufur, M. J., & Cornell Zito, R. (2010). Capital at home and at school: A review and synthesis. Journal of marriage and family, 72(4), 828-846.Pennycook, A. (2001). Critical applied linguistics: A critical introduction. Routledge.
• Pishghadam, R., Noghani, M., & Zabihi, R. (2011). An Application of a Questionnaire of Social and Cultural Capital to English Language Learning. English Language Teaching, 4(3), 151-157.
• Sablan, J. R., & Tierney, W. G. (2014). The changing nature of cultural capital. In Higher education: Handbook of theory and research (pp. 153-188). Springer Netherlands.
• Saraceno, C. (2014, October). Do we need capital accounts for culture?. In Joint IEA/ISI Strategic Forum 2014 and Workshop of the HighLevel Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress on Intra-generational and Inter- generational Sustainability, Rome (pp. 22-23). Savage, M., Warde, A., & Devine, F. (2005). Capitals, assets, and resources: some critical issues. The British journal of sociology, 56(1), 31-47.
• Sullivan, A. (2000). Cultural capital, rational choice and educational inequalities (Doctoral dissertation, University of Oxford).
• Sullivan, A. (2001). Cultural capital and educational attainment. Sociology, 35(4), 893-912.
• Tezcan, M. (1993). Eğitim sosyolojisinde çağdaş kuramlar ve Türkiye.Ankara Üniversitesi Eğitim Bilimleri Fakültesi Yayınları. No:170. Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi Basımevi.
• TUİK (Turkish Statistical Institute), (2006). Kültürel Faaliyetlere Katılım ve Ayrılan Zaman 2006. Available at: www.tuik.gov.tr.
• Xu, J., & Hampden-Thompson, G. (2011). Cultural reproduction, cultural mobility, cultural resources, or trivial effect? A comparative approach to cultural capital and educational performance. Comparative Education Review, 56(1), 98-124.
• Yamamoto, Y., & Brinton, M. C. (2010). Cultural capital in East Asian educational systems: The case of Japan. Sociology of Education, 83(1), 67-83.