P1 Education - Cultural Capital

Question 1

What did Bourdieu and Passeron argue (1977)?

Answer 1

They argued that middle class culture is as valuable in education as material wealth (trips, computers, internet, desk etc)

Question 2

Why are middle class children more likely to achieve because of higher cultural capital?

Answer 2

1. The knowledge and skills that are valued in education
2. They’re more likely to be raised by professional parents, who will pass knowledge onto them
3. Leisure time is more likely to be spent on educational pursuits like visiting museums.

Question 3

What does Pierre Bourdieu argue about culture capital?

Answer 3

He argues that the culture of the education system is based on the culture of the dominant class ( they have the power to impose meaning and to impose them as legitimate )

Question 4

What’s another thing Pierre Bourdieu argues about cultural capital?

Answer 4

He argues that in the education system the possession of the cultural capital can be translated into power, wealth and status.
Cultural capital is not evenly distributed (students success all depends on socialisation in the early years.

Question 5

What is habitus?

Answer 5

The values, attitudes, dispositions and expectations held by particular groups

Question 6

What does Bourdieu argue about habitus of the dominant class?

Answer 6

He argues that the habitus of the dominant class provides them with an advantage in the education system (parents and children are more likely to have a positive attitude towards education.)
- They have more inclination to do what is required to succeed in education

Question 7

What is said about the habitus of the working class?

Answer 7

They are more likely to have a more negative attitude to education - lower expectations of success and sometimes rejects values of school

Question 8

What did Alice Sullivan find in her study

Answer 8

1. She found that students were more likely to be successful if they read more complex fiction/TV - arts, science etc.
2. Students who read widely/watched intellectual TV developed higher vocabularies + greater knowledge
3. Sullivan found that students cultural capital was strongly correlated with parental cultural capital which links closely to their social class

Question 9

What did Ball et al (1994) argue about middle class parents?

Answer 9

• Argued that middle class parents can “play the system” with their cultural capital to ensure good schools
• They make impressions with head teachers
• They know how to mount an appeal

Question 10

What does West and Hind (2003) argue about middle class parents?

Answer 10

In school interviews, middle class parents often had cultural capital to negotiate (more likely than working class parents)
However government banned interviews in 2005.

Question 11

What are criticisms of Bourdieu’s theory?

Answer 11

1. Marxists criticise for the downplaying of material factors - economic exploitation and oppression
2. Too much emphasis placed on the structure of society shaping people’s behaviour - habitus is presented as determining behaviour
3. Vague, lacking in precision and details / difficult to operationalise
4. Sullivans test suggests that cultural capital explains only a part of education attainment

Question 12

What are strengths of Bourdieus theory?

Answer 12

Despite the criticisms Bourdioeu’s work has been extremely influential - it has informed many students and research projects and continues to do so