Cultural Capital in Schools

Abstract

One of the central goals of sociological studies of education has been to understand the role of schools in society. Do schools promote equal opportunity? Do schools help to recreate social stratification? In American society, where the ideology of meritocracy has taken root, American social science researchers have been preoccupied with issues of mobility and status attainment. The concept of cultural capital offers an alternative to the classic view of schools as the “great equalizer” which assesses students based on their raw talent or merit. Instead, the concept of cultural capital suggests that students’ performance in schools draws on students’ cultural resources where the habits, dispositions, and skills that children learn in the home are unequally valued by educators. For example, in this perspective children who learn classical music or other highly valued cultural practices at home may have an advantage in the educational setting compared to children who learn hip hop music or other cultural practices that are accorded lower social value. The profit yielded by cultural capital is linked to the value accorded to particular skills, dispositions, and habits by educators and other people in positions of power in dominant institutions. The concept of cultural capital plays a large role in arguments concerning social reproduction, in which schools are posited to play a key role in channeling individuals towards class destinations that reflect their class origins, and in legitimating inequality.