The reproduction of social inequality through education: The case of vocational high schools in Turkey

The main purpose of this qualitative-phenomenological study is to examine vocational high schools in Turkey within the context of social inequality. Using criterion sampling technique, fourteen teachers working in vocational high schools participated in a semi-structured interview. The obtained data were analyzed through the descriptive analysis method. The findings revealed that vocational high schools which have mostly students from low socio-economic background and an inferior social status can not function effectively and fail to enable the students to have jobs in a short time. It was also found out that the division of high schools as academic and vocational was accepted by almost half of the participants as a required condition and most of the teachers associated the current problems regarding vocational high schools with students' incompetences, indifferences, problematic behaviours, etc. Thus, they were found to be inclined to ignore the inequalities arising from the nature of class differences. In this sense, it can be argued that vocational education and vocational high schools reproduce existing social inequalities with socio-economic backgrounds of the students, low social status of these schools, division of schools as vocational and academic and teachers' discourses