Educational strategies of the conservative bourgeoisie: Cultural capital, family and schooling

Abstract

Over the past decades, the rise of the conservative bourgeoisie has been discussed in many aspects; however, the relation between such upward social mobility and education has not been problematized. This study is concerned with the conservative bourgeois families’ cultural capital formation process and the educational strategies being developed in this respect. The findings of the study are based on a field work composed of twelve semi-structured interviews and participant observation. Plus, to observe these emerging groups’ impact on the private education sector, the websites of private schools in Istanbul has been browsed and schools with a conservative identity have been identified. Within this scope, it can be said that AKP has pursued a neo-conservative educational policy in recent years by articulating neoliberal values such as competition, competence and creativity with religious and national ones. Secondly, it is seen that the number of conservative private schools has increased since the second half of 1990s, many of them having affiliations with conservative investment groups, associations and foundations. Thirdly, a significant intergenerational difference has been observed regarding families’ engagement with the cultural capital in terms of their rising educational levels and increasing involvement in their children’s educational life. This transformation of parenting, or more precisely mothering, can be accepted as an important basis on which the interviewees construct their subjectivities as “good mothers”. Finally, it is examined that aesthetics and religion-based morality are two main grounds through which families distinguish themselves both from lower class conservative families and from the secular bourgeoisie.