Educational choice and cultural capital: examining social stratification within an institutionalized dialogue between family and school

Barg, K. (2015) Educational choice and cultural capital: examining social stratification within an institutionalized dialogue between family and school. Sociology, 49(6), pp. 1113-1132. (doi: 10.1177/0038038514562854)

Abstract

This article analyses the impact of social class on families’ and teachers’ decision-making within an institutionalized family–school dialogue in France. The dialogue decides which upper secondary school track a student will attend and consists of three main steps: (1) family’s school track request; (2) staff meeting’s subsequent school track proposition; and (3) family’s optional rejection of the staff’s proposition. Using national longitudinal data, I find that parents’ cultural capital importantly mediates secondary effects (i.e. social class effects that remain after controlling for school performance) on families’ requests and their rejections of staffs’ propositions. Social class effects on staffs’ propositions are accounted for by families’ requests and student school performance. Moreover families and teachers appear to choose grade retention to avoid enrolment in a lower track.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Barg, Dr Katherin
• Authors: Barg, K.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Education
• Journal Name: Sociology
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• ISSN: 0038-0385
• ISSN (Online): 1469-8684
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2015 The Author
• First Published: First published in Sociology 49(6):1113-1132
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher