Race, Cultural Capital, and School Achievement in Race-Blind France

Abstract

Scholarship examining the role of cultural capital in school outcomes in relation to race and ethnicity in the French context is scarce. This article seeks to test how various potential forms of cultural capital, beyond the most traditional ones, are associated with school grades relationally with French students’ backgrounds. Using Ministry of Education data to perform regression analyses on old and new forms of cultural capital, I find some evidence of differences in their association with grades. Reading, internet, documentaries, sport, and music practice are all associated with higher school grades, but less so for Haiti and overseas- origin children for four practices out of five. This study contributes to research on ethnic/racial inequalities in the French school system and to broader conversations around the contemporary redefinition of cultural capital by showing that racial inequalities can be reproduced in schools through a wide array of cultural practices.