Attainment of cultural capital in higher education the case of Turkey

Abstract

The problem set forth in this study is to determine if the Cultural Mobility Theory or the Cultural Reproduction Theory functions in the Turkish higher-education system. It has long been believed in Turkey that a college education is the key for cultural, social, and economic mobility. Researchers who have studied cultural capital found that, regardless of gender, a student's cultural capital has a significant effect on their decision to enter higher education and complete it.This study aims to find out the impact of the mothers' and the fathers' cultural capitals on students' early (before entering college) and late (after entering college) attainment when family background was controlled. Moreover, it investigates if the college environment acts as an agent to increase cultural capital depending on the location of the college campuses. The main finding of this study is the substantially large effect of cultural capital gain before college over cultural capital attainment during higher education, and that the most important predictor of late cultural attainment is the cultural attainment of students before entering college. On the other hand, students' early cultural capital gain is predicted by the mother's education, family income, and access to private art tutoring before college. Another important predictor of early cultural capital gain that should be noted is that receiving help from teachers on their schoolwork increases students' early cultural capital gain.