Cultural Capital Flashcards
Bourdieu
Bourdieu argues that BOTH cultural and material factors contribute to educational achievement- they are interrelated!
Cultural capital
Bourdieu refers to cultural capital as the knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and abilities of the middle class.
Like wealth, these factors can be treated as a form of ‘capital’ as they all give an advantage to the individual!
Like Bernstein, he argues that through their primary socialisation, middle class children acquire the ability to grasp abstract ideas. This is what the education system requires for success! It is biased in favour of the M/C!
Educational capital
Bourdieu argues that M/C children with cultural capital are better equipped to meet the demands of the school curriculum and gain qualifications.
Wealthier parents can convert their economic capital into educational capital by sending their children to private schools or providing extra tuition.
A TEST OF BOURDIEU’S IDEAS…
Leech & Campos (2003) did a study in Coventry and found that middle class parents were more able to afford a house in the catchment area of a school placed highly in the league tables. This has become known as ‘selection by mortgage’.
Link to methods
Alice Sullivan (2001) used questionnaires to conduct a survey of 564 pupils in four schools. To assess their cultural capital, she asked them about a range of activities such as reading and TV habits.
She found that those who watched complex documentaries developed wider vocabulary. Those with the greatest cultural capital tended to be children of graduates.
