External Factors - Cultural Capital

Question 1

What are the three types of capital that has been identified?

Answer 1

Bourdieu identified 3 types of capital:
-economic capital
-educational capital
-cultural capital
Bordieu argues the MC generally possess more of all the three types of capital which contribute to educational achievement.

Question 2

How can cultural capital cause the differences in achievement?

Answer 2

-Bordieu uses the term cultural capital to refer to the knowledge, attitudes, values, language, abilities and taste of the middle-class. Bernstein argues through their socialisation middle class children are more likely to develop intellectual interests and an understanding of what the education system requires for success.

• This gives middle class children an advantage in school, where such abilities and interests are highly valued and rewarded with qualifications. This is because the education system values and transmits the dominant middle-class culture.
• Contrastingly, school devalues working class culture as ‘rough’ and inferior. Many working class pupils also ‘get the message’ that education is not meant for them and respond by truanting, early leaving or just not trying.

Question 3

How can educational and economic capital cause the differences in achievement?

Answer 3

• Bordieu argues that educational, economic and cultural capital can be converted into one another.
• For example, wealthier parents can convert their economic capital into educational capital by sending their children to private schools and paying for extra tuition. Also, middle-class parents are more likely to be able to afford a house in the catchment area of a school that is highly placed in the exam league tables. This has become known as ‘selection by mortgage’ because it drives up the cost of houses near to successful schools and excludes working class families.

Question 4

Evaluate cultural capital as an explanation of the differences in achievement

Answer 4

• Sullivan found that those who read complex fiction and watched serious TV documentaries developed a wider vocabulary and cultural knowledge indicating greater cultural capital. The pupils with the greatest cultural capital were children of graduates. These pupils were more likely to be successful at GCSE.
• However, although successful pupils with greater cultural capital were more likely to be middle class, Sullivan found that cultural capital only accounted for part of the class differences in achievement. Where pupils of different classes had the same level of cultural capital, middle class pupils still did better. Sullivan concludes that the greater resources and aspirations of middle-class families explain the remainder of the class gap in achievement.