Parenting and education: Navigating class, religiosity and secularity in Istanbul

Abstract

This article studies the educational choices that secular and religious professional and managerial middle-class parents in Istanbul make for their children. It explores the ways in which class intersects with religion in Turkey where, politics, culture, social, and even economic life are marked by a deep divide among the religious and the secular. Focusing on a particular segment of the middle classes, that with higher economic and social capital, the article brings to fore the ways in which religiosity and secularity structure the processes of transforming privileges into acquired rights in the form of educational qualifications and extracurricular skills. It explores the current sociological conjuncture that bereaves both groups, albeit in different ways, of their ability to fully mobilize their accumulated economic, social, and cultural capitals in reproducing their class position in their children. The article argues that exploring the parenting of education along the secular and the religious divide can unravel the foundational elements of the ongoing competition and conflict in Turkey and enables a deeper understanding of the current divide and the potential for a future reconciliation. The study relies on a qualitative study that entails interviews with thirty families and two focus groups.