Yeni orta sınıf velilerin Türk eğitim sistemi alanında sınıfsal yeniden üretim stratejileri

This study aims to reveal the class strategies of the new middle class (NMC) parents in the field of Turkish education system in Istanbul. The NMC parents engage in schooling process to increase academic success, and social mobility chances of their children as education is a central sustaining mechanism of class reproduction from the perspectives of middle class families. Schooling is an overemphasized practice for parents in their struggle to protect class privilege in the broader social and economic context in which middle-class identities of families are continuously under threat. The lack of the sense of security, the tension of high cultural capital with the shaky ground of economic capital, appear as significant determinants of the relationship between NMC parents, children, and education. The rapid and immense privatization of education contributed to the sense of insecurity and worries of NMC parents for their children's social mobility. Against this background, this study focuses on the reproduction strategies of the NMC parents. Drawing on three years of in-depth interviews with the students and parents from a middle class background, it first shows that NMC parents strategically enroll their children in a public school in a gated community and transform the schools through their available resources rather than paying for private schools. In doing so, they create "private-school-like spaces" in public schools together with other NMC parents. In other words, by doing so, parents from similar socioeconomic background creates a more homogenous school environment where they can interfere and transform conditions and opportunities of the school by using their resources. The study also documents how NMC parents engage in their children's schooling and organize the childrearing process as a whole to empower mobility chances of their children. In exploring these issues, the study particularly reveals the strategic use of the intergenerational closure, relations among parents, lobbying activities by this group. Key Words: class strategies, education, new middle class, privatization, school choice.