Education and cultural capital: the implications of changing trends in education policies

Abstract

Within the sociology of education most conceptualizations of cultural capital within empirical research focus on high status cultural participation. A smaller, parallel body of work emphasizes much broader understandings of cultural capital in relation to education. The first part of this article maps different conceptions of cultural capital across the field of educational research before developing a conceptualization that stresses the micro-interactional processes through which individuals comply (or fail to comply) with the evaluative standards of schooling. The article also argues that the growth of policy initiatives that accentuate the role of parents in schooling have made the myriad workings of cultural capital in relation to education more visible. Within government policy parental involvement has become the means whereby schools can tap the cultural capital resources of parents in the drive to raise standards. Economic capital has always had a defining influence, but now it is increasingly possible to see the power of cultural capital especially in relation to the growing emphasis on parental involvement and parental choice, and programmes such as gifted and talented. The second part of the article draws on data from research projects that examine parental choice, gifted and talented programmes, and parental involvement more generally, to illustrate the many ways in which cultural capital operates to reproduce educational advantage. Most of the examples underscore the close relationship between cultural and economic capital and how they work to reinforce each other, but an example is also included to illustrate how cultural capital can operate independently of economic capital. The article concludes that the policy emphasis on parental involvement and initiatives to retain the middle classes within state schooling work to maximize the potential of the already advantaged and are exacerbating class inequalities in education.