Cultural Capital - Pierre Bourdieu (1977)

Question 1

What did Bourdieu research?

Answer 1

• researched what middle-class parents and their children possessed and deducted that it is the **cultural capital*g that helps them succeed in school

Question 2

what is social reproduction?

Answer 2

cultural resources transmitted and reproduced through the education system that help higher classes maintain their privileged postion across generations

Question 3

qualities of middle class parents regarding education (4)

Answer 3

• pro-education
• usually highly qualified
• knowledge of how school works
• apply pressure when required

Question 4

What is Bourdieu’s concept of habitus? What is a middle-class habitus? (2)

Answer 4

• refers to ‘the typical way of doing things’
• middle-class habitus includes healthy, pro-education socialisation from an early age

Question 5

How is working-class (WC) habitus different? How do those pupils feel as a result? (2)

Answer 5

• WC do not often include education as a priority
• WC people feel ‘out of place’ and disconnected at school

Question 6

Eval for this theory - are schools hostile to WC habitus? (2)

Answer 6

• Bourdieu overlooks the way schools celebrate and promote differences
• social class does not have to be deterministic in making success of failure inevitable

Question 7

Eval - ignoring real differences in schools? (1)

Answer 7

• not all schools are middle class institutions which hold middle class values

Question 8

Eval - ignored impact of material factors on achievement? (1)

Answer 8

• evidence shows that where parents have similar levels of cultural capital, material differences in the home background ultimately determine success/failure

Question 9

Eval - what type of concept is cultural concept? (1)

Answer 9

• subjective concept as measuring one’s possession of cultural capital is unscientific, making it difficult to operationalise (simplify)