Neighborhood projects of education: the case of the Halkevi summer school in Okmeydanı

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the effects of state violence in everyday life on an alternative education program. Halkevleri has organized free Summer Schools for children at their ages of primary and secondary schools in poor neighborhoods since 2008. The Republican People‟s Party established Halkevleri in 1932 as an adult education center to collect social and cultural life under the republican regime. Halkevleri was established as a top-down organization however it has been converted an independent mass organization. The activities of Halkevleri in the field of education rebounded up with the historical changes. Halkevleri Summer School is analyzed as critical education practice because of its alternative education program, the way of the organization of program organized, education program for instructors, the relation between instructors and children and their perception of struggle for education as a part of social struggle. A politically, economically and ethnically marginalized neighborhood, Okmeydanı has been one of the places where Halkevleri Summer Schools organized since 2008. State violence, which is an historical reality of Okmeydanı, has been escalated since Gezi protests. Analyzing Halkevi Summer Schools in a politically, economically and ethnically marginalized neighborhood shows the limitations and possibilities of alternative education practices. While this alternative education opens a new space for children in their everyday life, the organization of the Summer School, participation of children, access to volunteer instructors, participation of parents and the practice of alternative education content is negatively affected by state violence.