The impact of İstanbul Beykoz municipality ''Culture, arts and education courses'' on students‘ lives

Abstract

This qualitative study intends to investigate the impact of İstanbul Beykoz Municipality ―Culture, Arts and Education Courses‖ on students‘ lives and tries to find the answer to the research question ―How do the top three remedial courses offered by the municipality contribute to students‘ lives?‖. These courses consist of school subjects, arts, music classes. This study is an initial attempt to analyze how remedial courses help students improve academically, psychologically, socially, and how these courses contribute to and change the lives and future of the students. Dershanes will have been closed down by September, 2015, so these remedial courses will be an alternative to dershanes and private tutoring. This study was conducted in two locations of Beykoz via semi-structured interviews. The subjects of this study were 12 students, 12 parents and 16 teachers and administrators; 40 people in total. Each interview was transcribed, translated into English and prepared for data analysis; emergent themes were found using the constant comparative method and the interviews were studied by using content analysis. On the basis of the findings of this study, these courses had academic, social, psychological, economic and career development impacts on students‘ lives. The students, parents, teachers and administrators had similar views, as students‘ the school success improved, students learned to spend their leisure time effectively in a secure environment, got socialized, increased their self-confidence and realized their potentials.