Parental networks, ethnicity, and social and cultural capital: the societal dynamics of educational resilience in Turkey

Abstract

Resilience research has increasingly gained ground in the field of education research, due to its potential for ameliorating inequalities. This article deals with the emergence of educational resilience, with particular attention to parental network structure, by employing a Bourdieusian social and cultural capital approach. While much of the literature discusses resilience normatively as a personal trait, this article frames it as an outcome of larger societal processes. Drawing on a comparative study of the experiences of resilient student-mother and dropout-mother pairs living in inner-city areas of Istanbul, the article illustrates that the emergence of resilience is strongly linked to resources such as parental networks and that parental networks significantly differ along the nexus of ethnicity.