Introduction: Parental Influences and Education

Abstract

AbstractBourdieu’s theory of cultural capital has been influential in sociological and educational research for four decades and renders a basis to explain educational and social reproduction inequality. His theory of cultural reproduction argues that parents with advanced social status transmit cultural capital to their offspring, which in turn is converted into educational and social success (Bourdieu,1973). Cultural capital is a key factor in maintaining educational inequality. This introductory chapter presents the author’s reviews and understandings of the literature regarding the key concepts of cultural capital for students’ cultural development. Extensive research has affirmed that parents influence students’ academic achievement and cultivation of cultural capital, and Bourdieu’s argument of the intergenerational transmission of cultural capital. Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital (1986, 1989) and the intergenerational transmission of cultural capital provide a theoretical framework with which this book explores the influence of parental cultural capital on students’ participation in music activities and, in turn, the cultivation of students’ cultural capital. This chapter provides readers with an overview and understandings of the development and operationalisation of Bourdieu’s cultural capital and the relevant literature, which forms the foundation of this study and its ensuing discussion.KeywordCultural capitalParental influencesEducational inequalityMusic activity