Cultural capital

• Bourdieu:

  • both cultural and material factors contribute to educational achievement and are not separate but interrelated.
  • 'educational capital' and 'cultural capital'
  • m/c possess all 3 types of capital.
• cultural capital: refer to knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and abilities of m/c
• educational, economic and cultural capital can be converted into one another
• Leech and Campo's:

  • study of Coventry shows, m/c parents are also 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
• Sullivan:

  • used questionnaires to conduct a study of 465 pupils in 4 schools.
  • those who read complex fiction and watched serious TV documentaries developed a wider vocabulary and a greater cultural knowledge.
  • these pupils did better in schools.
  • cultural capital only accounted for part of the class differences in achievement.