1. Pierre Bourdieu (1984)
Three types of Capital
• Argues that both cultural and material factors influence
achievement and are not separate but interrelated.
• Bourdieu also talks about 'educational capital' and
'cultural capital'. He argues that the middle class possess
more of all three types of capital.

2. Cultural Capital
• Cultural Capital refers to the
knowledge, attitudes, values, language, tastes and
abilities of the middle class
• Bourdieu sees the middle class as a 'capital' because it
gives advantage to those who possess it. He argues that
through socialisation, middle class children are more
likely to develop intellectual interests and an understand
what the education system needs to succeed.
• The working class find that school devalues their culture
as inferior and their capital leads to exam failure. Some
pupils 'get the message' that school is not for them thus
leading to early leaving and truanting.

3. Educational and Economical
Capital
• Leech and Campos' (2003) study shows that middle class
parents are more likely to be able to afford a house near
a desirable school. This is known as 'selection by
mortgage' because it drives up demand for houses near
successful schools.
• Similarly, wealth parents can convert this cultural capital
into educational capital by sending their children to
private schools.

4. Alice Sullivan (2001)
 Sullivan used questionnaires to conduct a survey of 465
pupils in four schools to assess their cultural capital.
 She asked them to do a range of activities e.g. reading.
She found that those who read complex fiction and
watched serious TV documentaries developed greater
cultural knowledge thus a higher cultural capital. These
pupils were more likely to be successful at GCSE.
• However, she also found that these students with greater
cultural capital were more likely to be middle class.