Family Background, Different Forms of Capital, and Student Achievement in Turkish High Schools

Abstract

There is a remarkable difference among the types of high school in the Turkish education system in terms of the level of academic achievement. The present paper aims to investigate the fundamental dynamics of this difference in terms of the economic, human, social, and cultural capital that students have inherited from their families. To analyze the relationships among these different forms of capital, the research reported here has employed a mixed-methods approach involving qualitative and quantitative data collected with a survey, during interviews and from observations, which once converged have been analyzed in an eclectic approach. The paper concludes that Turkish high school students raised in families rich in economic, human, social, and cultural capital tend to be more successful when they attend scientific high schools and Anatolian high schools, given the more balanced mobility offered by these forms of capital.