Children's conversion of cultural capital into educational success

the symbolic and skill-generating functions of cultural capital

verfasst von

Karoline Mikus, Nicole Tieben, Pia S. Schober

Abstract

A prominent explanation of intergenerational educational inequality is Bourdieu’s cultural reproduction theory. Indeed, previous studies have frequently shown that children’s cultural capital relates to academic outcomes. However, it remains unclear how children convert their cultural capital into achievement. While Bourdieu argued that cultural capital influences academic outcomes primarily by biasing teachers’ grades, other researchers have proposed the alternative explanation that children’s cultural capital absorption directly translates into academic skills. Using survey data on 2975 fifth graders from the German National Educational Panel Study, we disentangle these two mechanisms of children’s cultural capital conversion; and argue that the main conversion mechanism depends on the cultural capital dimension examined. The results of our structural equation model suggest that both mechanisms are at work and that the main conversion mechanism depends on the dimension of cultural capital examined.

Externe Organisation(en)

Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

Typ

Artikel

Journal

British journal of sociology of education

Band

41

Seiten

197-217

Anzahl der Seiten

21

ISSN

0142-5692

Publikationsdatum

2020

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Ausbildung bzw. Denomination, Soziologie und Politikwissenschaften

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

SDG 4 – Qualitativ hochwertige Bildung

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2019.1677454 (Zugang: Geschlossen)