Abstract
We investigate the possibility that Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital, ways of being that facilitate assimilation to the dominant culture, is field-specific in its manifestation and intergenerational transmission. We focus on a field of central economic and academic interest: STEM. Data on around 13,000 undergraduates from the large nationally representative High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 indicate that parents' STEM-specific cultural capital positively contributes to youth's selection of and persistence in STEM majors in the form of parents' STEM education. We find that transmission is enacted through youths' field-specific institutionalized cultural capital (e.g., STEM grades and test scores), field-specific embodied cultural capital (e.g., STEM attitudes), and characteristics of their educational institutions (e.g., four-year rather than two-year college). This study contributes to the theory of cultural capital by examining cultural capital through a field-specific lens, and then specifically elucidating how it is expressed and transmitted within that field.
Highlights
The theoretical work of Pierre Bourdieu (1977, 1984, 1986) on cultural capital is influential in the sociology of education, and stratification research more broadly (Davies andRizk 2018; Jaeger 2011; Laanan, Starobin, and Eggleston 2010; Lamont and Lareau 1988; Lareau 2003; Lareau, Evans, and Yee 2016)
Consistent with this study’s underlying assumptions, the proportion of students whose parents hold STEM-specific cultural capital is higher among the Intending STEM Major Analytic Sample than among the Intending College Analytic Sample
Within STEM, parents’ field-specific cultural capital does play a role in students majoring in and persisting in STEM majors, in the form of parents’ STEM education
Summary
The theoretical work of Pierre Bourdieu (1977, 1984, 1986) on cultural capital is influential in the sociology of education, and stratification research more broadly With the cultural resources that are recognized as dominant cultural capital more clear and consistent (Lareau et al 2016; Starobin, Smith, and Laanan 2016), focusing on a specific field facilitates a more coherent and tangible operationalization of cultural capital. This more specific focus supports the specification and nuancing of the broader cultural capital theory. We ask the following research questions: 1) How does parental field-specific cultural capital (i.e., their STEM education and occupations) relate to young adults’ selection of and persistence in STEM majors? Theory of cultural capital by examining cultural capital through a field-specific lens, and elucidating how it may be expressed and transmitted within that field
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