School relocations in the context of urban transformation and education policy change in Turkey

Abstract

This research examines the school relocation process in Istanbul, with a particular focus on two schools. The aim is to understand the interaction between the school relocation policy and the urban and education policy processes. Much of the data was collected through participatory inquiry where the researcher was a participant observer. Two high schools in Istanbul were explored with respect to their relocation processes, with a much more emphasis on one of the schools as its relocation was imminent. The findings show that school relocations induced by urban transformation are inextricably linked to the material and symbolic reorganisation of neighbourhoods and contribute to the destabilization of secular middle class neighbourhoods and their schools. Also, by showing how neoliberalisation interacts with inherited regulatory systems, this research brings a novel contribution to the existing international literature on the interaction between education policy and urban space. While a large body of international literature has demonstrated that school relocations or closings contribute to the perpetuation of the inequalities rooted in the racialised structures and institutions, this research brings a novel dimension with its argument that the relocation policy in Istanbul interacts with the desecularisation of the city and the education system.