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Unlock This CourseCultural capital is one of the most important concepts for explaining why some students do better in school than others. It helps us understand why educational achievement isn't just about how clever you are or how hard you work.
Key Definitions:
The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu developed the concept of cultural capital in the 1970s. He was trying to explain why children from middle-class families tended to do better in school than working-class children, even when they had similar abilities. Bourdieu argued that it wasn't just about money (economic capital) but also about cultural advantages.
Schools don't just teach facts - they reward certain ways of speaking, thinking and behaving. Students who already possess these traits (usually from middle-class homes) have a head start. It's like they know the "rules of the game" before they even start playing.
Bourdieu identified three main forms of cultural capital that affect how well students do in education:
The knowledge, skills and habits that become part of a person's character. This includes speaking style, vocabulary, manners and confidence. These traits are developed over time and can't be quickly transferred to someone else.
Physical cultural goods like books, artwork, musical instruments, computers and educational toys. Having these objects at home creates an environment where learning is valued and supported.
Formal qualifications and credentials that society recognises as valuable. This includes degrees, diplomas and certificates that can be "cashed in" for better jobs and opportunities.
Cultural capital influences educational success in several important ways:
Children from middle-class families often start school already familiar with the language, behaviour and knowledge that schools value. They might have been read to regularly, taken to museums, or encouraged to ask questions and express opinions. This gives them a significant head start.
Basil Bernstein's research showed that middle-class families typically use what he called an "elaborated code" of language - more abstract, complex vocabulary and sentence structures. Schools use and reward this type of language, which disadvantages working-class students who may be more familiar with a "restricted code" focused on practical, concrete communication.
Schools have an unwritten set of expectations about behaviour, attitudes and values. Students with higher cultural capital often understand these unspoken rules better. They know how to "play the game" of education - when to speak up in class, how to interact with teachers and how to present their work in ways teachers will appreciate.
Research by the National Literacy Trust found that children who have books at home and are read to regularly are more likely to enjoy reading and do better in school. By age 7, children who regularly read for pleasure are shown to have vocabularies that are thousands of words larger than their peers who don't read as often. This vocabulary advantage continues to grow throughout their education.
This is a clear example of how cultural capital (in this case, books at home and parents who value reading) creates educational advantages that compound over time.
Teachers and schools often unconsciously reward students who display middle-class cultural capital:
Schools can either reinforce or challenge cultural capital inequalities:
When schools assume all students have the same cultural background and access to resources, they end up rewarding those who already have advantages. Setting homework that requires internet access, expecting parents to help with projects, or assuming students have visited museums all favour those with higher cultural capital.
Schools can help level the playing field by explicitly teaching the cultural knowledge and skills that are often taken for granted. This might include providing access to books, cultural experiences and technology, teaching academic language explicitly and making the "hidden curriculum" visible to all students.
While cultural capital is a useful concept, it has some limitations:
Critics argue that Bourdieu's theory can be too deterministic - suggesting that your family background completely determines your educational success. This ignores the fact that many working-class students do succeed in education despite having less cultural capital.
The concept often defines "valuable" culture in terms of white, Western, middle-class norms. This fails to recognise the value of other cultural knowledge and experiences. Working-class and ethnic minority communities have their own valuable cultural capital that isn't always recognised by schools.
Some schools have successfully implemented programmes to build cultural capital for disadvantaged students. For example, "cultural enrichment" programmes that take students to theatres, museums and universities can help expose them to experiences they might not otherwise have access to.
In one London school, a programme that included regular museum visits, music lessons and debates saw disadvantaged students' GCSE results improve significantly over three years. The school focused not just on providing these experiences but also explicitly teaching students how to engage with them and use them in their academic work.
The concept of cultural capital continues to evolve. In today's digital world, new forms of cultural capital have emerged:
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted how cultural capital inequalities affect education. When schools moved online, students with access to technology, quiet study spaces and parents who could support their learning had significant advantages.
Cultural capital remains a powerful explanation for educational inequality. Understanding it helps us see that educational achievement isn't just about individual effort or ability - it's also shaped by social advantages that some students receive from their family background.
For sociologists, cultural capital helps explain how social inequality is reproduced across generations. For educators, it highlights the need to make schools more inclusive by recognising and addressing these hidden advantages.