A Sociocultural Analysis of Teachers’ Arts Consumption Habits

Teachers’ Arts Consumption Habits

Abstract

In an educational process that causes the reproduction of social classes and culture, the disadvantaged segments of the society may not be able to benefit from the vertical class mobility function of education because they lack the cultural capital to strengthen their social positions. In such a case, it is important for individuals to contact teachers who will increase their cultural capital gains in their educational processes and can be role models for them. In this respect, the problem of this research, which aims to describe the mentioned potentials of teachers through their art tendencies, is the artistic consumption habits of teachers and the sociocultural backgrounds that are the source of this habit pattern. The target population of this study, which is a descriptive research designed in the survey model, consists of 733 teachers working in the province of Ankara, who work at all levels and types of schools and were determined by the convenience sampling technique. The data of the research were collected through the Teachers' Arts Consumption Habits Questionnaire prepared by the researchers. The research findings were interpreted on the basis of the teachers' family backgrounds and the type of university they studied at. In this context, the most general result revealed by the study is that the family backgrounds of the teachers and the type of university they studied differentiated the cultural capital they acquired and thus their preferences in the artistic activities they were interested in and participated in with the arts they performed. There are clear distinctions between teachers who state that they grew up in traditional families and those who say they grew up in contemporary families, especially in the preferred and practiced arts. This distinction also manifests itself in preferred music genres. It is possible to see a similar distinction in the relationship between the universities where they study and their artistic consumption preferences.