Culture and Educational Achievement

Abstract

Many studies have analyzed the links between academic achievement and social class. Few, however, have focused on the process by which culture as life-style, rather than knowledge, reinforces inequalities in the class and economic structure of society. Gaynor Cohen reports her findings from an ethnographic study of a middle-class housing estate in Great Britain and shows that families living there are in the process of moving from a working-class status to one termed the "new" middle class. Achieving their newly acquired status through the occupational mobility of men, women of the estate develop a collective estate culture and life-style conducive to the academic success of their children. Dr. Cohen concludes her analysis by relating microlevel changes in family lifestyle and school achievement to changes in the occupational structure of society.