Bourdieu applied

Abstract

Bourdieu’s theoretical framework has become prominent for exploring differences between social groups and parenting practices in various educational settings. The mobilisation of familial capital from middle-class parents to enhance their children’s educational choices is well documented in the literature. This chapter draws on some interview data from six family case studies in Cyprus and reflects on the use of Bourdieu’s theory to explore adolescent students’ perceptions of parental influence on their educational choices for future studies in higher education (HE). The role of familial capital (economic, social and cultural) was investigated in this study and it became evident in the data that familial capital mediates parental influence. Nevertheless, adolescent students ‘deny’ their parents’ influence on their educational choices in their interviews and stress their autonomous decision making for future studies in HE. In this chapter, the concept of capital as a theoretical tool for interpreting parental influence on adolescent students’ educational choices is problematised. It is argued that parental influence on students’ educational choices can be conceptualised as a form of ‘symbolic violence’ after Bourdieu (1980), which students and their parents ‘misrecognise’ because parental influence is largely unconscious (Bourdieu 1996). Connections between social theory and educational research are discussed.