cultural capital (external factors)

• Cultural capital


  The knowledge, skills, values, abilities and tastes of the middle class
• Cultural capital


  • It is a type of capital because the middle class's abilities and interests are an advantage in school as they're valued
  • Working class culture is seen as rough/inferior by schools, which devalues pupils from this background
• Having cultural capital


  Often equals success in education as it's a middle class habitus, and working class pupils are left to underachieve
• Bourdieu (1984): 'Cultural, educational and economic capital can all be converted into one another'
• Educational & economic capital


  • Middle class pupils with cultural capital are more equipped to meet the demands of the school curriculum and get qualifications, giving them educational capital
  • Wealthy parents can convert economic capital into educational capital by sending their children to the best private schools on the league table
• Sullivan (2011) used questionnaires to survey 465 pupils in 4 schools, asking about their range of reading, visiting and TV habits to assess their cultural capital
• Sullivan found those who read complex fiction and watched serious documentaries had more cultural capital due to having a wider vocabulary and cultural knowledge
• Despite this, middle class pupils still performed better, which could be because they have economic and educational capital alongside cultural capital