Influences of Parental Cultural Capital on Support for Students’ Music Activities

Abstract

AbstractThe study shows that parental cultural capital predicted the types and level of support offered for music listening and instrumental learning. In keeping with (Bourdieu, 1973) concept of cultural capital, parents’ musical knowledge and education backgrounds may have anticipated students’ exposure to music in daily life, thus inculcating students with musical knowledge. Lending support to and complementing Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital, this chapter further unveils how parental cultural capital enhances parental support for students’ music listening and instrumental learning, and offers nuanced insights into how cultural reproduction is achieved through music learning. Parental cultural capital can be transformed into parental support, enhancing students’ participation in instrumental classes and music listening activities and furthering their musical development and possession of cultural capital. Parents with more cultural capital (higher education and previous music instrumental learning) more readily provided different types of support, arranged activities for their children, and more actively enhanced their children’s cultivation of cultural capital. The inequality of social and cultural reproduction was therefore legitimised through music cultivation.KeywordsCultural capitalParental supportMusic learningCultural reproduction