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How Familial Cultural Capital Affects High-School Students’ Future Expectations: Two Cases of Anatolian High Schools in Istanbul

Year 2021, , 11 - 31, 31.12.2021
https://doi.org/10.26650/IAR2021-0112

Abstract

This study focuses on how Anatolian high school students anticipate their future considering upcoming university placement examinations and relatedly prospective career paths. Theoretical framework rests on Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital and Annette Lareau & Elliot B. Weininger’s (2003) elaboration of the concept as familial cultural capital. Lareau & Weininger expand/relocate the concept of cultural capital, considering parental involvement in children’s flourishing of new skills, managing time effectively, and communicative skills such as confronting authority figures with a more entitled and self-directed way at educational settings. Lareau & Weininger attribute these tendencies to advantaged middle-class families. In another study, Annette Lareau (2003) also coins the term concerted cultivation. The term exemplifies upper-middle class families’ parenting style, their close interest in their children’s curricular and extra-curricular activities. Considering differences between middle-class and working-class home environments, Lareau discusses working-class families’ distinct parental world from their kids and middle-class families’ negotiation-based interaction between family members, which encourages children’s entitlement and self-direction at other interactions. In this study, I suggest considering another aspect of parental involvement in children’s education which represents a normative framing about future expectations amongst students coming from lower social class backgrounds. Additionally, I discuss how, despite their social class background, mothers play an influential role in children’s education confirming traditional reproduction roles. I present excerpts from a qualitative study, consisting of interviews and field notes from short ethnographic observations. I discuss a crucial difference between students coming from advantageous families and those that come from lower class families, regarding in-depth information about prospective careers, their extracurricular skills, and disadvantaged students’ adoption of guaranteed career paths.

References

  • Aşer, Z. H. (2017). Cultural Capital Accumulation among High School Students: Cases of Gaziosmanpaşa and Bakırköy. Istanbul: Istanbul Sehir University. Unpublished Master’s Thesis. google scholar
  • Behtoui, A. (2017). Social capital and the educational expectations of young people. European Educational Research Journal, 487-503. google scholar
  • Bernstein, B. (1977). Social Class, language, and socialisation. In J. Karabel, & A. H. Halsey (Eds.), Power and Ideology in Education. New York: Oxford University Press. google scholar
  • Bourdieu, P. (1980). The Logic of Practice. (R. Nice, Trans.) Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. google scholar
  • Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson, Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education (pp. 241-258). New York: Greenwood. google scholar
  • Bourdieu, P. (1998). Practical Reason: On the Theory of Action. California: Stanford University Press. google scholar
  • Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J.-C. (2015). Yeniden Üretim: Eğitim sistemine ilişkin bir teorinin ilkeleri. Ankara: Heretik. google scholar
  • Boyacı, A., & Öz, Y. (2018). Ortaöğretimde okul terki ve sosyal sermaye: Nitel bir çalışma. Journal of Economy, Culture and Society, 58-67. google scholar
  • Corsaro, W. A. (1992). Interpretive reproduction in children’s peer cultures. Social Psychology Quarterly, 160-177. google scholar
  • Çelik, Ç. (2014). Sosyal Sermaye, Ebeveyn Ağları ve Okul Başarısı. Cogito, 265-289. google scholar
  • Decoteau, C. L. (2016). The reflexive habitus: Critical realist and Bourdieusian social Action. European Journal of Social Theory, 19(3), 303-321. google scholar
  • Gündüz, M. (2017). Türkiye’de Yabancı Dilde Eğitim Yapan Resmi Ortaoğretim Kurumları: Maarif Kolejleri. Istanbul: Istanbul University. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. google scholar
  • Kohn, M. L. (1959). Social Class and Parental Values. American Journal of Sociology, 337-351. google scholar
  • Lareau, A. (2003). Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life. Berkeley: University of California Press. google scholar
  • Lareau, A., & Weininger, E. B. (2003). Cultural Capital in Educational Research: A Critical Assessment. Theory and Society, 567-606. google scholar
  • Lareau, A., & Weininger, E. B. (2009). An ethnographic extension of Kohn’s findings on class and childrearing. Journal of Marriage and Family, 680-695. google scholar
  • Lareau, A., Weininger, E. B., & Cox, A. B. (2018). Parental Challenges to Organizational Authority in an Elite School District: The Role of Cultural, Social, and Symbolic Capital. Teachers College Record, 1-46. google scholar
  • McCrory Calarco, J., Guhin, J., & Miller-Idriss, C. (2021). Whatever happened to socialization? Annual Review of Sociology, 109-129. google scholar
  • Öğütle, V. S. (2013). Reconsidering Real-Actual-Empirical Stratification: Can Bourdieu’s Habitus be Introduced into a Realist Social Ontology? Journal of Critical Realism, 12(4), 479-506. google scholar
  • Pellerin, L. A. (2005). School Disengagement and Socialization Styles in High Schools. Social Forces, 1159-1179. google scholar
  • Pourtois, J.-P., Lahaye, W., & Desmet, H. (2011). Kuşaktan kuşağa aktarım: Çocuklarımız çocuklarını nasıl eğitiyor? (Z. C. Atalay, Trans.) İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları. google scholar
  • Reay, D. (1995). A Silent Majority? Mothers in Parental Involvement. Women’s Studies International Forum, 18(3), 337-348. google scholar
  • Rutz, H. J., & Balkan, E. (2016). Sınıfın Yeniden Üretimi: Eğitim, Neoliberalizm ve İstanbul’da Yeni Orta Sınıfın Yükselişi. (N. Balkan, Trans.) İstanbul: H2O Kitap. google scholar
  • Suna, H. E., & Özer, M. (2021). Türkiye’de Sosyoekonomik Düzey ve Okullar Arası Başarı Farklarının Akademik Başarı ile İlişkisi. Eğitimde ve Psikolojide Ölçme ve Değerlendirme Dergisi, 54- 70. google scholar
  • Suna, H. E., Tanberkan, H., Gür, B. S., Perc, M., & Özer, M. (2020). Socioeconomic Status and School Type as Predictors of Academic Achievement. Journal ofEconomy Culture and Society, 1-24. google scholar
  • Willis, Paul. (1981). Learning to labour: how working class kids get working class jobs. New York: Columbia University Press. google scholar
  • Winchester, D., & Guhin, J. (2019). Praying “Straight from the Heart”: Evangelical sincerity and the normative frames of culture in action. Poetics, 32-42. google scholar

How Familial Cultural Capital Affects High-School Students’ Future Expectations: Two Cases of Anatolian High Schools in Istanbul

Year 2021, , 11 - 31, 31.12.2021
https://doi.org/10.26650/IAR2021-0112

Abstract

This study focuses on how Anatolian high school students anticipate their future considering upcoming university placement examinations and relatedly prospective career paths. Theoretical framework rests on Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital and Annette Lareau & Elliot B. Weininger’s (2003) elaboration of the concept as familial cultural capital. Lareau & Weininger expand/relocate the concept of cultural capital, considering parental involvement in children’s flourishing of new skills, managing time effectively, and communicative skills such as confronting authority figures with a more entitled and self-directed way at educational settings. Lareau & Weininger attribute these tendencies to advantaged middle-class families. In another study, Annette Lareau (2003) also coins the term concerted cultivation. The term exemplifies upper-middle class families’ parenting style, their close interest in their children’s curricular and extra-curricular activities. Considering differences between middle-class and working-class home environments, Lareau discusses working-class families’ distinct parental world from their kids and middle-class families’ negotiation-based interaction between family members, which encourages children’s entitlement and self-direction at other interactions. In this study, I suggest considering another aspect of parental involvement in children’s education which represents a normative framing about future expectations amongst students coming from lower social class backgrounds. Additionally, I discuss how, despite their social class background, mothers play an influential role in children’s education confirming traditional reproduction roles. I present excerpts from a qualitative study, consisting of interviews and field notes from short ethnographic observations. I discuss a crucial difference between students coming from advantageous families and those that come from lower class families, regarding in-depth information about prospective careers, their extracurricular skills, and disadvantaged students’ adoption of guaranteed career paths.

References

  • Aşer, Z. H. (2017). Cultural Capital Accumulation among High School Students: Cases of Gaziosmanpaşa and Bakırköy. Istanbul: Istanbul Sehir University. Unpublished Master’s Thesis. google scholar
  • Behtoui, A. (2017). Social capital and the educational expectations of young people. European Educational Research Journal, 487-503. google scholar
  • Bernstein, B. (1977). Social Class, language, and socialisation. In J. Karabel, & A. H. Halsey (Eds.), Power and Ideology in Education. New York: Oxford University Press. google scholar
  • Bourdieu, P. (1980). The Logic of Practice. (R. Nice, Trans.) Palo Alto: Stanford University Press. google scholar
  • Bourdieu, P. (1986). The forms of capital. In J. Richardson, Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education (pp. 241-258). New York: Greenwood. google scholar
  • Bourdieu, P. (1998). Practical Reason: On the Theory of Action. California: Stanford University Press. google scholar
  • Bourdieu, P., & Passeron, J.-C. (2015). Yeniden Üretim: Eğitim sistemine ilişkin bir teorinin ilkeleri. Ankara: Heretik. google scholar
  • Boyacı, A., & Öz, Y. (2018). Ortaöğretimde okul terki ve sosyal sermaye: Nitel bir çalışma. Journal of Economy, Culture and Society, 58-67. google scholar
  • Corsaro, W. A. (1992). Interpretive reproduction in children’s peer cultures. Social Psychology Quarterly, 160-177. google scholar
  • Çelik, Ç. (2014). Sosyal Sermaye, Ebeveyn Ağları ve Okul Başarısı. Cogito, 265-289. google scholar
  • Decoteau, C. L. (2016). The reflexive habitus: Critical realist and Bourdieusian social Action. European Journal of Social Theory, 19(3), 303-321. google scholar
  • Gündüz, M. (2017). Türkiye’de Yabancı Dilde Eğitim Yapan Resmi Ortaoğretim Kurumları: Maarif Kolejleri. Istanbul: Istanbul University. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. google scholar
  • Kohn, M. L. (1959). Social Class and Parental Values. American Journal of Sociology, 337-351. google scholar
  • Lareau, A. (2003). Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life. Berkeley: University of California Press. google scholar
  • Lareau, A., & Weininger, E. B. (2003). Cultural Capital in Educational Research: A Critical Assessment. Theory and Society, 567-606. google scholar
  • Lareau, A., & Weininger, E. B. (2009). An ethnographic extension of Kohn’s findings on class and childrearing. Journal of Marriage and Family, 680-695. google scholar
  • Lareau, A., Weininger, E. B., & Cox, A. B. (2018). Parental Challenges to Organizational Authority in an Elite School District: The Role of Cultural, Social, and Symbolic Capital. Teachers College Record, 1-46. google scholar
  • McCrory Calarco, J., Guhin, J., & Miller-Idriss, C. (2021). Whatever happened to socialization? Annual Review of Sociology, 109-129. google scholar
  • Öğütle, V. S. (2013). Reconsidering Real-Actual-Empirical Stratification: Can Bourdieu’s Habitus be Introduced into a Realist Social Ontology? Journal of Critical Realism, 12(4), 479-506. google scholar
  • Pellerin, L. A. (2005). School Disengagement and Socialization Styles in High Schools. Social Forces, 1159-1179. google scholar
  • Pourtois, J.-P., Lahaye, W., & Desmet, H. (2011). Kuşaktan kuşağa aktarım: Çocuklarımız çocuklarını nasıl eğitiyor? (Z. C. Atalay, Trans.) İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları. google scholar
  • Reay, D. (1995). A Silent Majority? Mothers in Parental Involvement. Women’s Studies International Forum, 18(3), 337-348. google scholar
  • Rutz, H. J., & Balkan, E. (2016). Sınıfın Yeniden Üretimi: Eğitim, Neoliberalizm ve İstanbul’da Yeni Orta Sınıfın Yükselişi. (N. Balkan, Trans.) İstanbul: H2O Kitap. google scholar
  • Suna, H. E., & Özer, M. (2021). Türkiye’de Sosyoekonomik Düzey ve Okullar Arası Başarı Farklarının Akademik Başarı ile İlişkisi. Eğitimde ve Psikolojide Ölçme ve Değerlendirme Dergisi, 54- 70. google scholar
  • Suna, H. E., Tanberkan, H., Gür, B. S., Perc, M., & Özer, M. (2020). Socioeconomic Status and School Type as Predictors of Academic Achievement. Journal ofEconomy Culture and Society, 1-24. google scholar
  • Willis, Paul. (1981). Learning to labour: how working class kids get working class jobs. New York: Columbia University Press. google scholar
  • Winchester, D., & Guhin, J. (2019). Praying “Straight from the Heart”: Evangelical sincerity and the normative frames of culture in action. Poetics, 32-42. google scholar
There are 27 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Anthropology
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Zeynel Hakan Aşer This is me 0000-0002-1750-6724

Publication Date December 31, 2021
Published in Issue Year 2021

Cite

APA Aşer, Z. H. (2021). How Familial Cultural Capital Affects High-School Students’ Future Expectations: Two Cases of Anatolian High Schools in Istanbul. Istanbul Anthropological Review(1), 11-31. https://doi.org/10.26650/IAR2021-0112