Cultural Capital Theory is a Marxist theory of differential educational achievement. In contrast to cultural deprivation theory, cultural capital theory does not see working class culture as inferior, or lacking in any way, it just sees it as different to middle class culture. Instead of blaming working class underachievement on flawed working-class culture, cultural capital theory focuses on the dominance of middle class culture in society and social institutions.
In short, middle class children are more likely to succeed because the education system is run by the middle classes and works in their interests. The middle classes are able to define their own culture as superior and thus working class culture and working class children are marginalised in the education system and end up underachieving.
The Marxist sociologist Pierre Bourdieu is the theorist most closely associated with developing the concept of cultural capital and applying it to education. Bourdieu argued that each class has its own cultural framework, or set of norms, values and ideas which he calls the habitus. This habitus contains a set of assumptions about what counts as good and bad taste which influences the kind of leisure activities different classes engage in, the kind of places they visit, where they go on holiday, the kind of television programmes they are likely to watch, what kinds of books they are likely to read and the type of music they are likely to listen to.
The middle class habitus places much more value on the following kinds of activities, and thus these are the kinds of activities which middle class children are more likely to be exposed to compared to working class children:. This knowledge can either be specific — such as with reading non-fiction, or more general — such as cultural trips providing children with a sense of independence and self-confidence.
Middle class culture is also the dominant culture in most schools, and schools place high value on the above types of middle class skills and knowledge. In contrast, working class culture with its immediate gratification and restricted speech codes is seen as inferior by most schools. The default assumption of the school in regards to working class children is that school is somewhere where working class children are taught to be more middle class — thus by default working class culture is devalued and working class children are more likely to struggle in education as a result.
One important and easy to undersand aspect of cultural capital theory is educational capital — middle class parents are educated to a higher level than working class parents they are more likely to have university degrees — an obvious advantage of this is that they are more able to help children with homework throughout their school careers, but the are also more likely to socialise their children into thinking that going to university is a normal part of life — and thus good GCSEs and A levels are a necessity rather than being a choice.
Cultural capital is one of the most important concepts within the sociology of education , it is part of the broader sub-topic of sociological explanations of underachievement.
Please click here to return to the main ReviseSociology home page! As far as I understand it, middle class children had more cultural capital — the kind of norms and values that give them an advantage in education.
I guess WC kids have their own form of CC, just not the kind that helps them in formal education which is staffed by the middle classes. So what is the cultural capital for working-class children? Or do working-class children have cultural capital? Another confusion is that the embodied cultural capital includes some tastes while habitus also can refer to some tastes, so how to distinguish the embodied cultural capital and habitus?
Easier said that done, of course! In the context of education, social capital in the forms of parental expectations, obligations, and social networks that exist within the family, school, and community are important for student success. These variations in academic success can be attributed to parents' expectations and obligations for educating their children; to the network and connections between families whom the school serves; to the disciplinary and academic climate at school; and to the cultural norms and values that promote student efforts.
The concept of social capital is a useful theoretical construct for explaining the disparities in students' educational performance among different nations. In the s James Coleman developed the concept of social capital to conceptualize social patterns and processes that contribute to the ethnic disparities of student achievement. He argued that the educational expectation, norms, and obligations that exist within a family or a community are important social capital that can influence the level of parental involvement and investment, which in turn affect academic success.
At the family level, parents' cultural capital and financial capital become available to the child only if the social connection between the child and the parents is sufficiently strong. Youths from single-parent families or with larger numbers of siblings are more likely to drop out of high school because of the eroded social capital associated with the nontraditional family structure.
He saw families passing on cultural capital to their children by introducing them to dance and music, taking them to theatres, galleries and historic sites, and by talking about literature and art over the dinner table.
Institutionalised: qualifications, education credentials. Emotional: empathy, sympathy things businesses might look for in employees in management positions. Subcultural: Groups built around cultural specifics, where individuals need particular cultural knowledge and behaviours to belong to the sub-set. It is characterised by the experience and skill to be able to deploy the appropriate knowledge in any given situation: a job interview, a conversation with a neighbour, building a work network and so on.
Evidence suggests that the cultural capital passed on through families helps children do better in school.
The education system values the knowledge and ways of thinking developed by acquiring cultural capital, both abstract and formal. As adults, cultural capital helps individuals to network with other adults who have a similar body of knowledge and experiences, and who in turn control access to high-paying professions and prestigious leadership roles, for example in government.
In their book Culture, Class, Distinction Bennet et al, describe this system of privilege:.
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