Cultural Capital

the knowledge, skills, education, and advantages that a person has, generally those passed on by parents.  

Academic support focusing on cultural capital can be a mitigating factor in supplementing the intangible assets that students from low SES settings bring into school.  Schools using non-traditional, comprehensive intervention plans that help supplement student’s cultural capital should be more effective in closing the achievement gap than accelerated instruction or early start programs.  

Current mainstream efforts focus on having students start school earlier or by enrolling them in multiple periods of the same subject to accelerate their understanding of the material.  This address the symptoms of the problem, but does not address the underlying causes.

REsearch

Grounded in Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital, the cultural capital a student brings into the classroom has an impact on the achievement gap.  Poverty is a common issue for educationally disadvantaged students (Linn, 2008), and low income creates difficulties for students having access to educational resources (Wilt, 2006).  Most of these issues fall into the idea of Bourdieu’s habitus, or the mind’s system of creating patterns that create a person’s dispositions.  Family, art, and education are a few things that help create this habitus (Shim, 2012).  This mental state affects how students and teachers react to education and the learning environment.  Students’ socio-economic backgrounds affect the cultural capital they bring to the educational setting.  Socio-economic status is one of the biggest influences on how a student performs in school (Tajalla & Opheim, 2004).

References:

Linn, G.B. (2008) Leveling the playing field for disadvantaged students: Academic equity for diverse student populations. In J.A. Vornberg (Ed.), Texas public school organization and administration: 2008. 11th Ed. (517-529). Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.

Shim, J. (2012). Exploring How Teachers' Emotions Interact with Intercultural Texts: A Psychoanalytic Perspective. Curriculum Inquiry, 42(4), 472-496.

Tajalli, H., & Opheim, C. (2005). Strategies for closing the gap: Predicting student performance in economically disadvantaged schools. Educational Research Quarterly, 28(4), 44-54.

Wilt, R. W. (2006). A success model for low-income students. Inquiry, 11(1), 65-73.