Cultural capital in educational research: A critical assessment

Theory and Society

Volumn 32, Issue 5-6, 2003, Pages 567-606

  Lareau, Annette ^a   Weininger, Elliot B ^a  

^a TEMPLE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 1542728177     PISSN: 03042421     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1023/B:RYSO.0000004951.04408.b0     Document Type: Review

References (115)

1. Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron, Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture, trans. Richard Nice (London: Sage Publications, 1990 [1970]); Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984 [1979]).
2. Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron, Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture, trans. Richard Nice (London: Sage Publications, 1990 [1970]); Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984 [1979]).
3. See, for example, Bonnie Erickson, "Culture, Class, and Connections," American Journal of Sociology 102/1 (July 1996): 217-251; Michèle Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and American Upper-Middle Class (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992); Bethany Bryson, "Anything But Heavy Metal," American Sociological Review 61/5 (1996): 884-899; and David Halle, Inside Culture: Art and Class in the American Home (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993); as well as numerous educational researchers discussed below.
4. See, for example, Bonnie Erickson, "Culture, Class, and Connections," American Journal of Sociology 102/1 (July 1996): 217-251; Michèle Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and American Upper-Middle Class (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992); Bethany Bryson, "Anything But Heavy Metal," American Sociological Review 61/5 (1996): 884-899; and David Halle, Inside Culture: Art and Class in the American Home (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993); as well as numerous educational researchers discussed below.
5. See, for example, Bonnie Erickson, "Culture, Class, and Connections," American Journal of Sociology 102/1 (July 1996): 217-251; Michèle Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and American Upper-Middle Class (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992); Bethany Bryson, "Anything But Heavy Metal," American Sociological Review 61/5 (1996): 884-899; and David Halle, Inside Culture: Art and Class in the American Home (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993); as well as numerous educational researchers discussed below.
6. See, for example, Bonnie Erickson, "Culture, Class, and Connections," American Journal of Sociology 102/1 (July 1996): 217-251; Michèle Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and American Upper-Middle Class (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992); Bethany Bryson, "Anything But Heavy Metal," American Sociological Review 61/5 (1996): 884-899; and David Halle, Inside Culture: Art and Class in the American Home (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1993); as well as numerous educational researchers discussed below.
7. Halle, Inside Culture.
8. Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners.
9. Jeanne Ballantine, The Sociology of Education: A Systematic Analysis (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997), 80-81; Cornelius Riordan, Equality and Achievement: An Introduction to the Sociology of Education (New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc., 1997), 66.
10. Jeanne Ballantine, The Sociology of Education: A Systematic Analysis (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997), 80-81; Cornelius Riordan, Equality and Achievement: An Introduction to the Sociology of Education (New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers Inc., 1997), 66.
11. Michael Hout, "More Universalism, Less Structural Mobility: The American Occupational Structure in the 1980's," American Journal of Sociology 93/3 (1988): 1358-1400.
12. Thus, in this article, we focus on the literature in sociology of education; we do not provide an analysis of cultural capital in other research areas such as the sociology of culture.
13. Our article here obviously is indebted to an earlier piece, written by the first author with Michèle Lamont, which examined cultural capital in the American context: Michèle Lamont and Annette Lareau, "Cultural Capital: Allusions, Gaps and Glissandos in Recent Theoretical Developments," Sociological Theory 6 (Fall 1988): 153-168. However, it does diverge from the earlier piece in certain respects: it incorporates more recent studies, it focuses exclusively on the conception of cultural capital in sociology of education (rather than critically evaluating the concept and its use in a variety of areas of sociological research), and it centers theoretical attention on the importance of institutional standards in any definition of cultural capital, stressing this point somewhat more sharply than the earlier article had. Lamont's subsequent work has maintained an emphasis on status signals deriving from the earlier paper, extending it to a focus on moral boundaries. See Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners; Michèle Lamont, "Introduction: Beyond Taking Culture Seriously," The Cultural Territories of Race, ed. Michèle Lamont (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999); and Michèle Lamont, The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class and Immigration (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000).
14. Our article here obviously is indebted to an earlier piece, written by the first author with Michèle Lamont, which examined cultural capital in the American context: Michèle Lamont and Annette Lareau, "Cultural Capital: Allusions, Gaps and Glissandos in Recent Theoretical Developments," Sociological Theory 6 (Fall 1988): 153-168. However, it does diverge from the earlier piece in certain respects: it incorporates more recent studies, it focuses exclusively on the conception of cultural capital in sociology of education (rather than critically evaluating the concept and its use in a variety of areas of sociological research), and it centers theoretical attention on the importance of institutional standards in any definition of cultural capital, stressing this point somewhat more sharply than the earlier article had. Lamont's subsequent work has maintained an emphasis on status signals deriving from the earlier paper, extending it to a focus on moral boundaries. See Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners; Michèle Lamont, "Introduction: Beyond Taking Culture Seriously," The Cultural Territories of Race, ed. Michèle Lamont (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999); and Michèle Lamont, The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class and Immigration (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000).
15. Our article here obviously is indebted to an earlier piece, written by the first author with Michèle Lamont, which examined cultural capital in the American context: Michèle Lamont and Annette Lareau, "Cultural Capital: Allusions, Gaps and Glissandos in Recent Theoretical Developments," Sociological Theory 6 (Fall 1988): 153-168. However, it does diverge from the earlier piece in certain respects: it incorporates more recent studies, it focuses exclusively on the conception of cultural capital in sociology of education (rather than critically evaluating the concept and its use in a variety of areas of sociological research), and it centers theoretical attention on the importance of institutional standards in any definition of cultural capital, stressing this point somewhat more sharply than the earlier article had. Lamont's subsequent work has maintained an emphasis on status signals deriving from the earlier paper, extending it to a focus on moral boundaries. See Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners; Michèle Lamont, "Introduction: Beyond Taking Culture Seriously," The Cultural Territories of Race, ed. Michèle Lamont (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999); and Michèle Lamont, The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class and Immigration (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000).
16. Our article here obviously is indebted to an earlier piece, written by the first author with Michèle Lamont, which examined cultural capital in the American context: Michèle Lamont and Annette Lareau, "Cultural Capital: Allusions, Gaps and Glissandos in Recent Theoretical Developments," Sociological Theory 6 (Fall 1988): 153-168. However, it does diverge from the earlier piece in certain respects: it incorporates more recent studies, it focuses exclusively on the conception of cultural capital in sociology of education (rather than critically evaluating the concept and its use in a variety of areas of sociological research), and it centers theoretical attention on the importance of institutional standards in any definition of cultural capital, stressing this point somewhat more sharply than the earlier article had. Lamont's subsequent work has maintained an emphasis on status signals deriving from the earlier paper, extending it to a focus on moral boundaries. See Lamont, Money, Morals, and Manners; Michèle Lamont, "Introduction: Beyond Taking Culture Seriously," The Cultural Territories of Race, ed. Michèle Lamont (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999); and Michèle Lamont, The Dignity of Working Men: Morality and the Boundaries of Race, Class and Immigration (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000).
17. Others, including George Farkas, have stressed the importance of micro-interactional processes in cultural capital research: "[This research] ... argues for future attempts to deepen our understanding of the micro-processes underlying stratification outcomes by providing data on the way that gatekeeper judgments are constructed from a myriad of day-to-day interactions." George Farkas, R. Grobe, D. Sheehan, and Yuan Shuan, "Cultural Resources and School Success: Gender, Ethnicity, and Poverty Groups Within an Urban District," American Sociological Review 55 (1990): 127-142: 128. However, in his empirical research, Farkas emphasizes the importance of work habits, an element that differs from the factors that we considered to be critical to any conception of cultural capital, as our discussion below reveals.
18. Research centered on other Bourdieusean concepts (e.g., habitus) is excluded from the list, as is research that, in our view, runs together distinct concepts (e.g., cultural capital and social capital). Strictly for reasons of space, we also have excluded studies by authors already represented on the list, on the grounds that the additional studies were very similar to those included with respect to the questions considered here.
19. Paul DiMaggio, "Cultural Capital and School Success," American Sociological Review 47 (April 1982): 189-201, 199.
20. DiMaggio, "Cultural Capital and School Success," 189.
21. See especially page 191 of DiMaggio, "Cultural Capital and School Success."
22. Ibid., 189-190, quoting Weber.
23. Ibid., 190.
24. Ibid., 199.
25. Ibid., 194.
26. We must note that Bourdieu often drew a distinction between "traditionalistic" and "rationalized" systems of institutional education in his early work. However, in contrast to DiMaggio (and many of the English-language sociologists who followed), Bourdieu did not ground this distinction in the content of the culture inculcated or evaluated by the school (that is, in a distinction between "technical" and "nontechnical" subject matters and competences). Rather, a "rationalized" pedagogy, for Bourdieu, was defined as one in which the degree of cultural continuity or discontinuity between the home and school milieus was explicitly accounted for in the school's pedagogical practice (e.g., Bourdieu and Passeron, Reproduction, 53). Thus, the particular content of the culture inculcated and evaluated by the school was irrelevant to his formulation. We return to this question in the following section.
27. Paul DiMaggio and John Mohr, "Cultural Capital, Educational Attainment, and Marital Selection," American Journal of Sociology 90 (1985): 1231-1261.
28. John Mohr and Paul DiMaggio, "The Intergenerational Transmission of Cultural Capital," Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 14 (1995): 167-199.
29. John Kastillis and Richard Rubinson, "Cultural Capital, Student Achievement, and Educational Reproduction," American Sociological Review 55 (April 1990): 270-279; Matthias Kalmijn and Gerbert Kraaykaamp, "Race, Cultural Capital, and Schooling: An Analysis of Trends in the United States," Sociology of Education 69 (1996): 22-34; Vincent J. Roscigno and James W. Ainsworth-Darnell, "Race, Cultural Capital, and Educational Resources: Persistent Inequalities and Achievement Returns," Sociology of Education 72 (July 1999): 158-178; Tamela McNulty Eitle and David Eitle, "Race, Cultural Capital, and the Educational Effects of Participation in Sports," Sociology of Education 75 (2002): 123-146; and Nan Dirk De Graaf, Paul M. De Graaf, and Gerbert Kraaykaamp, "Parental Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment in the Netherlands: A Refinement of the Cultural Capital Perspective," Sociology of Education 73 (2000): 92-111.
30. John Kastillis and Richard Rubinson, "Cultural Capital, Student Achievement, and Educational Reproduction," American Sociological Review 55 (April 1990): 270-279; Matthias Kalmijn and Gerbert Kraaykaamp, "Race, Cultural Capital, and Schooling: An Analysis of Trends in the United States," Sociology of Education 69 (1996): 22-34; Vincent J. Roscigno and James W. Ainsworth-Darnell, "Race, Cultural Capital, and Educational Resources: Persistent Inequalities and Achievement Returns," Sociology of Education 72 (July 1999): 158-178; Tamela McNulty Eitle and David Eitle, "Race, Cultural Capital, and the Educational Effects of Participation in Sports," Sociology of Education 75 (2002): 123-146; and Nan Dirk De Graaf, Paul M. De Graaf, and Gerbert Kraaykaamp, "Parental Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment in the Netherlands: A Refinement of the Cultural Capital Perspective," Sociology of Education 73 (2000): 92-111.
31. John Kastillis and Richard Rubinson, "Cultural Capital, Student Achievement, and Educational Reproduction," American Sociological Review 55 (April 1990): 270-279; Matthias Kalmijn and Gerbert Kraaykaamp, "Race, Cultural Capital, and Schooling: An Analysis of Trends in the United States," Sociology of Education 69 (1996): 22-34; Vincent J. Roscigno and James W. Ainsworth-Darnell, "Race, Cultural Capital, and Educational Resources: Persistent Inequalities and Achievement Returns," Sociology of Education 72 (July 1999): 158-178; Tamela McNulty Eitle and David Eitle, "Race, Cultural Capital, and the Educational Effects of Participation in Sports," Sociology of Education 75 (2002): 123-146; and Nan Dirk De Graaf, Paul M. De Graaf, and Gerbert Kraaykaamp, "Parental Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment in the Netherlands: A Refinement of the Cultural Capital Perspective," Sociology of Education 73 (2000): 92-111.
32. John Kastillis and Richard Rubinson, "Cultural Capital, Student Achievement, and Educational Reproduction," American Sociological Review 55 (April 1990): 270-279; Matthias Kalmijn and Gerbert Kraaykaamp, "Race, Cultural Capital, and Schooling: An Analysis of Trends in the United States," Sociology of Education 69 (1996): 22-34; Vincent J. Roscigno and James W. Ainsworth-Darnell, "Race, Cultural Capital, and Educational Resources: Persistent Inequalities and Achievement Returns," Sociology of Education 72 (July 1999): 158-178; Tamela McNulty Eitle and David Eitle, "Race, Cultural Capital, and the Educational Effects of Participation in Sports," Sociology of Education 75 (2002): 123-146; and Nan Dirk De Graaf, Paul M. De Graaf, and Gerbert Kraaykaamp, "Parental Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment in the Netherlands: A Refinement of the Cultural Capital Perspective," Sociology of Education 73 (2000): 92-111.
33. John Kastillis and Richard Rubinson, "Cultural Capital, Student Achievement, and Educational Reproduction," American Sociological Review 55 (April 1990): 270-279; Matthias Kalmijn and Gerbert Kraaykaamp, "Race, Cultural Capital, and Schooling: An Analysis of Trends in the United States," Sociology of Education 69 (1996): 22-34; Vincent J. Roscigno and James W. Ainsworth-Darnell, "Race, Cultural Capital, and Educational Resources: Persistent Inequalities and Achievement Returns," Sociology of Education 72 (July 1999): 158-178; Tamela McNulty Eitle and David Eitle, "Race, Cultural Capital, and the Educational Effects of Participation in Sports," Sociology of Education 75 (2002): 123-146; and Nan Dirk De Graaf, Paul M. De Graaf, and Gerbert Kraaykaamp, "Parental Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment in the Netherlands: A Refinement of the Cultural Capital Perspective," Sociology of Education 73 (2000): 92-111.
34. Paul M. De Graaf, "The Impact of Financial and Cultural Resources on Educational Attainment in the Netherlands," Sociology of Education 59 (1986): 237-246.
35. Robert V. Robinson and Maurice Garnier, "Class Reproduction Among Men and Women in France," American Journal of Sociology 91 (1985): 250-280.
36. Harry B.G. Ganzeboom, Paul De Graaf, and Peter Robert, "Cultural Reproduction Theory on Socialist Ground," Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 9 (1990): 79-104; Karen Aschaffenburg and Ineke Maas, "Cultural and Educational Careers: The Dynamics of Social Reproduction," American Sociological Review 62 (August 1997): 573-587.
37. Harry B.G. Ganzeboom, Paul De Graaf, and Peter Robert, "Cultural Reproduction Theory on Socialist Ground," Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 9 (1990): 79-104; Karen Aschaffenburg and Ineke Maas, "Cultural and Educational Careers: The Dynamics of Social Reproduction," American Sociological Review 62 (August 1997): 573-587.
38. Susan A. Dumais, "Cultural Capital, Gender, and School Success: The Role of Habitus," Sociology of Education 75 (2002): 44-68.
39. Ganzeboom, De Graaf, and Robert, "Intergenerational Transmission of Inequalities in Hungary"; Kastillis and Rubinson, "Cultural Capital, Student Achievement, and Educational Reproduction"; Kalmijn and Kraaykaamp, "Race, Cultural Capital, and Schooling"; Dumais, "Cultural Capital, Gender, and School Success"; and Eitle and Eitle, "Race, Cultural Capital, and the Effects of Sports."
40. Ganzeboom, De Graaf, and Robert, "Intergenerational Transmission of Inequalities in Hungary"; Kastillis and Rubinson, "Cultural Capital, Student Achievement, and Educational Reproduction"; Kalmijn and Kraaykaamp, "Race, Cultural Capital, and Schooling"; Dumais, "Cultural Capital, Gender, and School Success"; and Eitle and Eitle, "Race, Cultural Capital, and the Effects of Sports."
41. Ganzeboom, De Graaf, and Robert, "Intergenerational Transmission of Inequalities in Hungary"; Kastillis and Rubinson, "Cultural Capital, Student Achievement, and Educational Reproduction"; Kalmijn and Kraaykaamp, "Race, Cultural Capital, and Schooling"; Dumais, "Cultural Capital, Gender, and School Success"; and Eitle and Eitle, "Race, Cultural Capital, and the Effects of Sports."
42. Ganzeboom, De Graaf, and Robert, "Intergenerational Transmission of Inequalities in Hungary"; Kastillis and Rubinson, "Cultural Capital, Student Achievement, and Educational Reproduction"; Kalmijn and Kraaykaamp, "Race, Cultural Capital, and Schooling"; Dumais, "Cultural Capital, Gender, and School Success"; and Eitle and Eitle, "Race, Cultural Capital, and the Effects of Sports."
43. Ganzeboom, De Graaf, and Robert, "Intergenerational Transmission of Inequalities in Hungary"; Kastillis and Rubinson, "Cultural Capital, Student Achievement, and Educational Reproduction"; Kalmijn and Kraaykaamp, "Race, Cultural Capital, and Schooling"; Dumais, "Cultural Capital, Gender, and School Success"; and Eitle and Eitle, "Race, Cultural Capital, and the Effects of Sports."
44. Paul Kingston discusses many of these same studies in a critical essay, "The Unfulfilled Promise of Cultural Capital Theory," Sociology of Education Extra Issue (2001): 88-99. Kingston is troubled by the lack of empirical evidence documenting the power of cultural capital in educational research, and by this research's conceptual variety at the definitional level. As our article makes clear, we see more intellectual coherence in the "dominant approach" than does Kingston. Because the concept of cultural capital that the majority of the literature uses is narrow and incomplete, we maintain that it is premature to conclude that the concept is of limited value on the grounds that a more robust theoretical foundation might yield different empirical results.
45. Alice Sullivan, "Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment," Sociology 35/4 (2001): 893-912.
46. De Graaf et al., "Parental Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment."
47. See page 96 of De Graaf et al., "Parental Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment."
48. Farkas et al., "Cultural Resources and School Success: Gender, Ethnicity, and Poverty Groups within an Urban District."
49. Farkas does, however, break with an implicit assumption of much of the literature in his argument that cultural capital (in his sense of the term) is causally related to "cognitive" skills.
50. George Farkas, "Cognitive Skills and Noncognitive Traits and Behaviors in Stratification Processes," Annual Review of Sociology 29 (2003): 541-562.
51. David Swartz, "From Human Capital to Cultural Capital: The Influence of Pierre Bourdieu on American Sociology of Education," 2002, Radio Broadcast, France Culture, on the World Wide Web at http://www.radiofrance.fr/ chaines/france-culture/speciale/speciale_bourdieu/index.php. Accessed 15 April 2003.
52. We thus mention, only in passing, that the majority of English-language literature on cultural capital departs from Bourdieu in a number of ways that are not discussed in this article. First, nearly all researchers who have taken up the cultural capital concept - with the partial exception of Mohr and DiMaggio (Mohr and DiMaggio, "The Intergenerational Transmission") - weld it to a notion of social class that is largely alien to Bourdieu. Secondly, throughout his career, Bourdieu rejected the assumptions about causality inherent in standard multivariate techniques; in contrast, the majority of English-language cultural capital researchers make use of these techniques. On both issues, see Elliot B. Weininger, "Class and Causation in Bourdieu," ed. Jennifer Lehmann, Current Perspectives in Social Theory (Amsterdam: JAI Press, 2002), 21: 49-114; and Elliot Weininger, "Pierre Bourdieu on Social Class and Symbolic Violence," in Alternative Foundations of Class Analysis, ed. Erik Olin Wright (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press).
53. We thus mention, only in passing, that the majority of English-language literature on cultural capital departs from Bourdieu in a number of ways that are not discussed in this article. First, nearly all researchers who have taken up the cultural capital concept - with the partial exception of Mohr and DiMaggio (Mohr and DiMaggio, "The Intergenerational Transmission") - weld it to a notion of social class that is largely alien to Bourdieu. Secondly, throughout his career, Bourdieu rejected the assumptions about causality inherent in standard multivariate techniques; in contrast, the majority of English-language cultural capital researchers make use of these techniques. On both issues, see Elliot B. Weininger, "Class and Causation in Bourdieu," ed. Jennifer Lehmann, Current Perspectives in Social Theory (Amsterdam: JAI Press, 2002), 21: 49-114; and Elliot Weininger, "Pierre Bourdieu on Social Class and Symbolic Violence," in Alternative Foundations of Class Analysis, ed. Erik Olin Wright (forthcoming, Cambridge University Press).
54. Bourdieu, Distinction.
55. P. Bourdieu, "Cultural Reproduction and Social Reproduction," Jerome Karabel and A. H. Halsey, editors, Power and Ideology in Education (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 487-511.
56. Ibid., 488.
57. Ibid., 495.
58. Ibid., 495.
59. Pierre Bourdieu, "The Forms of Capital," Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, ed. John G. Richardson (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986) 241-258.
60. Pierre Bourdieu, "The Forms of Capital," 245, esp. note 6.
61. Lamont and Lareau, "Cultural Capital."
62. A partial exception to this oversight can be found in research that attempts to determine inductively which facets of culture merit the appellation "capital." See Sullivan, "Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment." However, insofar as an element of culture is elevated to the status of capital solely on the basis of its superior predictive power in such studies (vis-à-vis an outcome such as grades), the actual mechanisms implicated in cultural capital "effects" remain obscure.
63. See, for example, Richard Peterson and Roger M. Kern, "Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob to Omnivore," American Sociological Review 61 (1996): 900-907; and Bryson, "Anything but Heavy Metal," for the U.S. case; see Michèle Lamont and Virag Molnar, "The Study of Boundaries in the Social Sciences," Annual Review of Sociology 28 (2002): 167-195, for a discussion.
64. See, for example, Richard Peterson and Roger M. Kern, "Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob to Omnivore," American Sociological Review 61 (1996): 900-907; and Bryson, "Anything but Heavy Metal," for the U.S. case; see Michèle Lamont and Virag Molnar, "The Study of Boundaries in the Social Sciences," Annual Review of Sociology 28 (2002): 167-195, for a discussion.
65. See, for example, Richard Peterson and Roger M. Kern, "Changing Highbrow Taste: From Snob to Omnivore," American Sociological Review 61 (1996): 900-907; and Bryson, "Anything but Heavy Metal," for the U.S. case; see Michèle Lamont and Virag Molnar, "The Study of Boundaries in the Social Sciences," Annual Review of Sociology 28 (2002): 167-195, for a discussion.
66. Lamont and Lareau, "Cultural Capital."
67. Pierre Bourdieu, "The Forms of Capital."
68. Ibid., 244.
69. Pierre Bourdieu, "The Specificity of the Scientific Field," trans. Richard Nice, French Sociology: Rupture and Renewal Since 1968, ed. Charles Lemert (New York, Columbia, 1981) 257-292, 258 (emphasis in original).
70. Pierre Bourdieu, The State Nobility, trans. L. Clough (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), 116-123.
71. Bourdieu, "The Forms of Capital."
72. Pierre Bourdieu, The State Nobility (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996 [1989]), 119.
73. Bourdieu, "Masculine Domination Revisited," 119.
74. Ibid., 119.
75. This point holds irrespective of whether or not one judges Bourdieu's arguments compelling.
76. Paul Kingston, "The Unfulfilled Promise of Cultural Capital Theory."
77. As various reviewers have noted, the books and articles listed in Table 2 primarily use qualitative methods, while those in Table 1 use quantitative methods. It is possible that the capacity of qualitative methods to capture routine aspects of daily life facilitated the development of a broader understanding. Still, although our conception of cultural capital (elaborated below) is particularly amenable to qualitative techniques, we do not claim an intrinsic connection. To the contrary, the potential of quantitative research is as yet not fully developed, largely as a result of the fact that most such studies have had to draw on data that were not collected explicitly for the purpose of analyzing cultural capital. Indeed, researchers adhering to the "dominant interpretation" have often noted the constraints that derive from having to undertake secondary analysis.
78. For example, McDonough writes, "parents had first-hand college information that they brought to bear on their daughters' choice processes and they have other relevant cultural capital. For example Mr. Ornstein knew his daughter's SAT scores ... could be improved through formal coaching, and he hired a private counselor to help identify schools at which those SAT scores would not be an admission hinderance." Patricia M. McDonough, Choosing College: How Social Class and Schools Structure Opportunity (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1997): 150. See also Peter W. Jr. Cookson and Caroline Persell, Preparing for Power (New York: Basic, 1985).
79. For example, McDonough writes, "parents had first-hand college information that they brought to bear on their daughters' choice processes and they have other relevant cultural capital. For example Mr. Ornstein knew his daughter's SAT scores ... could be improved through formal coaching, and he hired a private counselor to help identify schools at which those SAT scores would not be an admission hinderance." Patricia M. McDonough, Choosing College: How Social Class and Schools Structure Opportunity (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1997): 150. See also Peter W. Jr. Cookson and Caroline Persell, Preparing for Power (New York: Basic, 1985).
80. Reay studies 33 mothers whose children attend a working-class or a middle-class school in London. In her book, she discusses extensively the work of Annette Lareau, especially Home Advantage: Social Class and Parental Intervention in Elementary Education (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000 [1989]). Reay argues that, compared to Lareau, it is necessary to focus on the gendered nature of parent involvement, on differences in the character of schools located in working-class and middle-class communities, on the active and involved nature of working-class mothers in their children's school lives, and on variations within working-class and middle-class families. See Diane Reay, Class Work: Mothers' Involvement in Their Children's Primary Schooling (London: University College London, 1998). Still, both Lareau and Reay conclude that the role of parents, and especially mothers, in activating cultural capital is critical to understanding class differences in children's school experiences.
81. Reay studies 33 mothers whose children attend a working-class or a middle-class school in London. In her book, she discusses extensively the work of Annette Lareau, especially Home Advantage: Social Class and Parental Intervention in Elementary Education (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000 [1989]). Reay argues that, compared to Lareau, it is necessary to focus on the gendered nature of parent involvement, on differences in the character of schools located in working-class and middle-class communities, on the active and involved nature of working-class mothers in their children's school lives, and on variations within working-class and middle-class families. See Diane Reay, Class Work: Mothers' Involvement in Their Children's Primary Schooling (London: University College London, 1998). Still, both Lareau and Reay conclude that the role of parents, and especially mothers, in activating cultural capital is critical to understanding class differences in children's school experiences.
82. Adrian Blackledge, "The Wrong Sort of Capital," International Journal of Bilingualism 5/3 (2001): 345-369.
83. Annette Lareau and Erin McNamara Horvat, "Moments of Social Inclusion and Exclusion," Sociology of Education 72 (January 1999): 37-53.
84. Prudence Carter, "'Black' Cultural Capital, Status Positioning, and Schooling Conflicts for Low-Income African American Youth," Social Problems 50/1 (2003): 136-155, 137.
85. Joyce Epstein, Schools, Family and Community Partnerships (Boulder: Westview Press, 2001); Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children (Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes, 1995). However, the work by Claire Smrekar, School Choice in Urban America: Magnet Schools and the Pursuit of Equity (New York: Teachers College Press, 1999) is less critical on this point than the other studies in Table 2.
86. Joyce Epstein, Schools, Family and Community Partnerships (Boulder: Westview Press, 2001); Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children (Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes, 1995). However, the work by Claire Smrekar, School Choice in Urban America: Magnet Schools and the Pursuit of Equity (New York: Teachers College Press, 1999) is less critical on this point than the other studies in Table 2.
87. Joyce Epstein, Schools, Family and Community Partnerships (Boulder: Westview Press, 2001); Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, Meaningful Differences in the Everyday Experiences of Young American Children (Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes, 1995). However, the work by Claire Smrekar, School Choice in Urban America: Magnet Schools and the Pursuit of Equity (New York: Teachers College Press, 1999) is less critical on this point than the other studies in Table 2.
88. Lamont and Lareau, "Cultural Capital," 156.
89. Ibid., 159-161.
90. I b i d.
91. Bourdieu and Passeron, "Cultural Reproduction," 495.
92. Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power, trans. G. Raymond and M. Adamson (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991), 67-72.
93. Bourdieu, Distinction, 88.
94. To be sure, such an "imposition" need not be direct, but can instead be carried out by what Bourdieu referred to as "agencies of consecration." See Bourdieu, Distinction, 96.
95. Studies would document the criteria for advancement in schools, such as skills needed to get good grades and score highly on tests, as well as other formal and informal ways that educators evaluate students. In the study of the influence of family background on schooling, for example, it is also important to document the ways in which educators presume that parents have the educational skills to assist children with homework, help children organize their time for school projects, drive children to stores to get materials for school projects, ask informed, detailed questions in parent-teacher conferences, and otherwise comply with educators' standards. The key is to study parents' actions in the ways schools define as crucial, as well as parents' efforts to promote school success in ways that educators do not value. For example, educators' standards lead them to value parents who read to their children nightly in elementary school more highly than parents who scrape together scarce economic resources to purchase educational equipment such as "Hooked on Phonics" (advertised on television). Not all parents' actions to support education are given equal weight by educators.
96. What might this mean? To take only one area, researchers would study variations by social class in terms of parents' detailed, accurate knowledge of how organizations work. This might include questions of how parents' level of knowledge about how to request special services, such as gaining access to the gifted program or their knowledge of teachers' reputations and strategies for getting their children placed with a particular teacher. Educators often use specific language terms that they expect parents to know (such as "auditory reception problems" or even "vocabulary development") that exceed the linguistic skills of many parents. Parents who do understand these terms, or have the sense of entitlement to ask for a definition, gain advantages over those who do not. In a related vein, parents also differ in the skills they have, sometimes rooted in their workplace experiences, to approach institutional settings to make requests. Educators have a preferred way of being approached by "clients," one that stresses parents' deference and their expression of "concern." Thus, parents' familiarity with the schools' organizational routines, educators' linguistic terms, and the micro-interactional standards for professional-client interaction are all aspects that need to be studied in an effort to understand cultural capital in families' efforts to advance young children's academic careers.
97. See Lareau and Horvat, "Moments of Exclusion."
98. See Lareau, "Invisible Inequality." Portions of the discussion of the Marshall family appeared in Annette Lareau's book, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2003). The author is grateful to University of California Press for permission to reprint those sections here. The families were drawn primarily from public schools in a midwestern community and from one city and one suburban school in a large Northeastern metropolis. The study began when children were in third grade with classroom observations. Letters were sent to parents; separate two-hour interviews were held with mothers and fathers as well as educators. Families were from middle-class, working-class, and poor homes. Class was defined by parents' work situations and their educational levels. A subsample of 12 families was recruited for additional study.When children were in fourth grade, there were intensive home observations of these families including the two described in this article. (The families were paid $350 for their participation.) The observations included from about 12 to 14 visits to the first three families in the study (including the Carroll family) but then increased to 20 visits, usually daily, for the remaining nine. The first author was assisted in the research by a multi-racial team of research assistants. Because the classrooms did not provide sufficient numbers of children for all of the conceptual categories, particularly for black middle-class families and poor white families, additional families were recruited outside the school from social service agencies, other schools, and informal social networks. For these families, including the Marshall family, we do not have observations at school. For additional methodological details, see Lareau, Unequal Childhoods.
99. See Lareau, "Invisible Inequality." Portions of the discussion of the Marshall family appeared in Annette Lareau's book, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2003). The author is grateful to University of California Press for permission to reprint those sections here. The families were drawn primarily from public schools in a midwestern community and from one city and one suburban school in a large Northeastern metropolis. The study began when children were in third grade with classroom observations. Letters were sent to parents; separate two-hour interviews were held with mothers and fathers as well as educators. Families were from middle-class, working-class, and poor homes. Class was defined by parents' work situations and their educational levels. A subsample of 12 families was recruited for additional study.When children were in fourth grade, there were intensive home observations of these families including the two described in this article. (The families were paid $350 for their participation.) The observations included from about 12 to 14 visits to the first three families in the study (including the Carroll family) but then increased to 20 visits, usually daily, for the remaining nine. The first author was assisted in the research by a multi-racial team of research assistants. Because the classrooms did not provide sufficient numbers of children for all of the conceptual categories, particularly for black middle-class families and poor white families, additional families were recruited outside the school from social service agencies, other schools, and informal social networks. For these families, including the Marshall family, we do not have observations at school. For additional methodological details, see Lareau, Unequal Childhoods.
100. See Lareau, "Invisible Inequality." Portions of the discussion of the Marshall family appeared in Annette Lareau's book, Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2003). The author is grateful to University of California Press for permission to reprint those sections here. The families were drawn primarily from public schools in a midwestern community and from one city and one suburban school in a large Northeastern metropolis. The study began when children were in third grade with classroom observations. Letters were sent to parents; separate two-hour interviews were held with mothers and fathers as well as educators. Families were from middle-class, working-class, and poor homes. Class was defined by parents' work situations and their educational levels. A subsample of 12 families was recruited for additional study.When children were in fourth grade, there were intensive home observations of these families including the two described in this article. (The families were paid $350 for their participation.) The observations included from about 12 to 14 visits to the first three families in the study (including the Carroll family) but then increased to 20 visits, usually daily, for the remaining nine. The first author was assisted in the research by a multi-racial team of research assistants. Because the classrooms did not provide sufficient numbers of children for all of the conceptual categories, particularly for black middle-class families and poor white families, additional families were recruited outside the school from social service agencies, other schools, and informal social networks. For these families, including the Marshall family, we do not have observations at school. For additional methodological details, see Lareau, Unequal Childhoods.
101. Briefly, Lareau argues in "Invisible Inequality" and Unequal Childhoods for the existence of social class differences in the logic of childrearing. She asserts that in middle-class families, black and white, a coherent pattern can be observed, that she terms "concerted cultivation." This cultural orientation entails a focus on parents' active development of children's skills and talents. By contrast, working class and poor families, both black and white, exhibit an orientation to what she terms the "accomplishment of natural growth." In this case, parents feel compelled to keep children safe and provide them with shelter, food, and love; but they then presume that children will grow and thrive spontaneously. Her book, Unequal Childhoods, elaborates these differences across different domains of daily life, including leisure time, language use, and interaction with representatives of institutions. We hasten to add here that there are differences within social class in how these broad cultural orientations are enacted: some parents are shy, some are outgoing, some are anxious, some are more relaxed, etc. While space does not permit us to take them up here, they are detailed in Unequal Childhoods.
102. Philippe Aries, Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of the Family (New York: Basic Books, 1962); Viviana A. Zelizer, Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children (New York: Basic Books, 1985).
103. Philippe Aries, Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of the Family (New York: Basic Books, 1962); Viviana A. Zelizer, Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children (New York: Basic Books, 1985).
104. Julia Wrigley, "Do Young Children Need Intellectual Stimulation? Experts' Advice to Parents, 1900-1985," History of Education Quarterly 29/1 (Spring 1989): 41-75.
105. Sharon Hays, The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996).
106. For a discussion of cultural capital that emphasizes the historicality of educational standards, see Jan C. C. Rupp, and Rob de Lange, "Social Order, Cultural Capital and Citizenship: An Essay Concerning Educational Status and Educational Power Versus Comprehensiveness of Elementary Schools," Sociological Review 37 (1989): 668-705. Rupp and de Lange understand cultural capital in terms of "resources of knowledge and culture" and the power to determine which elements of knowledge and culture will function as resources. However, they do not always recognize the role that professionals may play, especially in the contemporary period, in mediating between social classes and particular institutions.
107. U.S. Department of Education, "What Works," (1996) Washington, D.C.
108. See Lareau, Unequal Childhoods, chapter 9, for a detailed discussion of the children's complaints that "Art" the bus driver was "racist." There was an initial period of hesitation on the part of Ms. Marshall, but after the children provided additional evidence, she ultimately pursued the matter with district officials.
109. There is some ambiguity in the roles each woman plays in the children's lives. Cassie, for example, often defers to her mother on key decisions, such as whether Tara and Dwayne could be in the study. On the other hand, Ms. Carroll often defers to her daughter. Thus, when the children complain about attending a tutoring project in the housing development office, she accepts Cassie's decision that they need not participate: "I guess they didn't like it.... They said [the adult tutors] had attitudes.... And so they complained to their mother about the attitudes, and she said, "Don't send them down there." So I don't.... I think they just didn't want to go. Period. I didn't take it to heart. I really didn't take it seriously. I just didn't send them."
110. Both her third- and fourth-grade teachers adored her. They described her (privately) as one of their favorites.
111. This teacher viewed Tara's mother in very positive terms, as she reported after the conference: "[Tara's mother] cares about her kids, she definitely does. She cares about her kids. She's always been interested. Tara is one that is going to be all right. She's gonna make it.... Tara's a great kid, I mean, definitely a great kid. She has trouble with math but other than that she'll be OK. She'll get it. She's real sweet. I hope it works out for her mom to get out of [the housing project]. That would be really good for her and Tara, too."
112. Of course, not all middle-class parents immediately know what terms such as "word attack skills" mean; however, their overall level of educational competence is far higher than that of working class and poor parents. As policy reports routinely decry, rates of illiteracy are very high in America. In our observations, working-class and poor parents, even high school graduates, frequently could not, for example, figure out a child's height if it was given in inches, would stumble over the word "heredity," did not know what a "tetanus shot" was, and so forth. Displays of this sort of competence (as well as the confidence to ask questions) were integral to the interactional style of middle-class parents in conferences with teachers (see Elliot B. Weininger and Annette Lareau, "Translating Bourdieu into the American Context: The Question of Social Class and Family-School Relations," Poetics: Journal of Empirical Research on Literature, the Media and Arts, forthcoming).
113. In his first article on the subject, DiMaggio stated that observational documentation of the "elite status culture" he assumed to be operating was necessary before cultural capital research could progress. DiMaggio, "Cultural Capital and School Success," 191. Lamont and Lareau subsequently declared that such a project was essential to the vitality of the concept: "[d]ocumenting the socially and historically specific forms of American cultural capital is now an urgent empirical task" (Lareau and Lamont, "Cultural Capital," 162). Nevertheless, despite the fact that both of these articles are widely cited in the educational literature, researchers who adhere to the dominant interpretation of cultural capital have made little effort in this direction.
114. In his first article on the subject, DiMaggio stated that observational documentation of the "elite status culture" he assumed to be operating was necessary before cultural capital research could progress. DiMaggio, "Cultural Capital and School Success," 191. Lamont and Lareau subsequently declared that such a project was essential to the vitality of the concept: "[d]ocumenting the socially and historically specific forms of American cultural capital is now an urgent empirical task" (Lareau and Lamont, "Cultural Capital," 162). Nevertheless, despite the fact that both of these articles are widely cited in the educational literature, researchers who adhere to the dominant interpretation of cultural capital have made little effort in this direction.
115. Personal communication, Kevin Dougherty, letter to authors, June 12, 2003.