Speaker
Description
Education is critical for understanding urban and social inequalities in Turkey. The Turkish Statistical Institute's annual report on education expenditure and poverty highlights a significant disparity: individuals in the highest income bracket spend nearly ten times more on education than those in the lowest. The statistics reveal a striking correlation between education and poverty rates; illiterate individuals face a poverty rate of 27.7%, which dramatically decreases to 7.8% for high school graduates and just 2.6% for university graduates (TurkStat, 2023). As a result, obtaining a university degree is often seen as a key to a stable and esteemed future, especially among middle and upper socio-economic classes in Turkey. This widely held belief has made education increasingly competitive. Many parents express concerns about their children facing low educational quality, insufficient language and analytical skills, and unstable social settings, especially within public schools. While parents from middle and upper-income backgrounds are generally viewed as proactive regarding their children's education, those from lower-income families are often perceived as less involved in their children's schooling (Bagci & Gizir, 2013; Ünal et al., 2010).
Studies on segregation in Turkey, on the other hand, tend to focus more on residential segregation. Although the division of cities into different social groups and its causes have received ample attention (Güvenç & Işık, 2002, Işık & Pınarcıoğlu, 2009; Ataç, 2016), the relationship between education, schools, and residential segregation is not yet fully understood. Nonetheless, education is a critical factor even in the development of urban patterns in Turkey.
Based on this backdrop, this study aims to investigate the socio-spatial relationship between the academic performance of high schools and residential segregation in education line within the Ankara metropolitan area. Ankara serves as an unexplored yet promising case for examining the relationship between education and segregation. As the capital city of Turkey, Ankara boasts the most highly educated population and is often referred to as the educational capital. The research, therefore, seeks to answer these questions: Is there a spatial relationship between the academic performance of high schools and residential segregation in educational line in Ankara? If such a relationship exists, does it give rise to new urban divisions in the city? What is the role of public and private schools in shaping the divided structure of the city? How are residential segregation and the segregation of high schools interrelated? To address these questions, academic performance is represented by the results of the National University Entrance Examination at the high school level, while residential segregation is analyzed through the population census at the neighborhood level. By cross-referencing these two datasets and using mapping and statistical techniques, the study examines the relationship between school-based and residential-based segregation in Ankara metropolitan area.
The research reveals three core findings. First, there is a visible spatial segregation among high schools in Ankara, which correlates with academic performance, where public and private schools play a significant role in this division. Second, residential neighborhoods within Ankara are distinctly segregated based on the educational attainment of their inhabitants. Lastly, there is a clear connection between school-based segregation and residential segregation; these two phenomena are often intertwined, suggesting that Ankara is characterized by divisions related to education and the academic outcomes of its high schools. The study concludes that education serves not only as a criterion for social and economic status in Turkey but also plays an essential role in shaping patterns of segregation related to both residency and schooling, contributing to the emergence of new divisions within urban areas.
References
Ataç, E. (2016) A divided capital: Residential segregation in Ankara. METU Journal of Faculty of Architecture, 33 (1), pp.187–205.
Bagci, Ç. Z., & Gizir, S. (2013) Examination of Expectations of Private School Parents from Education, Research, and Evaluations in Education. In B. Ç. Kılıç, K. Baş, & M. Akgül (Eds.), Research and Evaluations in Education (pp. 121–153). Ankara, Turkey: Gece Kitaplığı Publish.
Güvenç, M. & Isık, O. (2002) A metropolis at the crossroads: The hanging social geography of Istanbul under the impact of globalization, "Of States and Cities: The Partitioning of Urban Space (203-220). Marcuse, P. ve Van Kempen R. (Eds.), Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Isık, O., & Pınarcıoğlu, M. M. (2009) Segregation in Istanbul: Patterns and processes. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 100 (4), pp. 469-484.
TurkStat (2023) Household consumption expenditures in Turkey. Available at: https://data.tuik.gov.tr/Bulten/Index?p=Hanehalki-Tuketim-Harcamasi-2022-49690
Ünal I., Özsoy S., Yıldız A., Göngör S., Aylar E., & Çankaya, D. (2010) Research report on social segregation in education (Eğitimde toplumsal ayrışma araştırma raporu), Ankara.
| Keywords | School segregation, residential segregation, urban divisions, Ankara |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
