Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for more information on Social Problems, 2e

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Sociology
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Sullivan, A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Cultural Capital and Educational Attainment

Alice Sullivan

Nuffield College Oxford

According to Bourdieu's theory of cultural reproduction, children from middle-class families are advantaged in gaining educational credentials due to their possession of cultural capital. In order to assess this theory, I have developed a broad operationalisation of the concept of cultural capital, and have surveyed pupils on both their own and their parents' cultural capital. I will conclude that cultural capital is transmitted within the home and does have a significant effect on performance in the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) examinations. However, a large, direct effect of social class on attainment remains when cultural capital has been controlled for. Therefore, `cultural reproduction' can provide only a partial explanation of social class differences in educational attainment.

Key Words: attainment • cultural capital • education • gender • inequality • social class.

Sociology, Vol. 35, No. 4, 893-912 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/0038038501035004006
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 SociologyHome page
A. Zimdars, A. Sullivan, and A. Heath
Elite Higher Education Admissions in the Arts and Sciences: Is Cultural Capital the Key?
Sociology, August 1, 2009; 43(4): 648 - 666.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Eur Sociol RevHome page
B. Becker
The Transfer of Cultural Knowledge in the Early Childhood: Social and Ethnic Disparities and the Mediating Role of Familial Activities
Eur. Sociol. Rev., January 12, 2009; (2009) jcn081v1.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Journal of Librarianship and Information ScienceHome page
A. Goulding
Libraries and Cultural Capital
Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, December 1, 2008; 40(4): 235 - 237.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Eur Sociol RevHome page
N. Biedinger, B. Becker, and I. Rohling
Early Ethnic Educational Inequality: The Influence of Duration of Preschool Attendance and Social Composition
Eur. Sociol. Rev., April 1, 2008; 24(2): 243 - 256.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 SociologyHome page
C. Barone
Cultural Capital, Ambition and the Explanation of Inequalities in Learning Outcomes: A Comparative Analysis
Sociology, December 1, 2006; 40(6): 1039 - 1058.
[Abstract] [PDF]