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FACE Conference 2009

FACE Conference 2009. Cultural capital as an explanation of variation in participation in higher education. John Noble and Peter Davies Institute for Access Studies, Staffordshire University. Cultural Capital. Bourdieu’s Three forms of Cultural Capital:

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FACE Conference 2009

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  1. FACE Conference 2009

  2. Cultural capital as an explanation of variation in participation in higher education John Noble and Peter Davies Institute for Access Studies, Staffordshire University

  3. Cultural Capital Bourdieu’s Three forms of Cultural Capital: • Embodied state – directly linked to and incorporated within the individual and represents what they know and can do. • Objectified state – represented by objects and goods such as books, paintings, music, instruments and machines. • Institutionalized capital – represented by a world of certificates and qualifications – a world of credentials.

  4. The Cultural Capital Questionnaire • Previous work: Sullivan (2001); Bennett et al., (2005) : long questionnaires In this questionnaire: • Maximum of 15 mins to complete • Measure of students’ and parents’ cultural capital • Parents’ educational qualifications and occupation • Predicted A level grades

  5. Sample

  6. Robustness and Factor Analysis • Cronbach Alphas: 0.75 (Students) 0.83 (Parents) • Bartlett and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin OK. • Maximum likelihood extraction under oblique rotation. • 2/3 Factor solutions: Current Affairs; High Art; Music.

  7. Models Tested • (Model 1) Is = f(POs, PEs, Ds, Hs) • (Model 2) Is = f(As, POs, PEs, Ds, Hs) • (Model 3) Is = f(As, Cs, POs, PEs, Ds, Hs) • (Model 4) Is = f(As, Current affairss, Musics, High arts, POs, PEs, Ds, Hs)

  8. Results (1)

  9. Results

  10. Results

  11. Results

  12. The policy issue Current guidance from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (2007 para. 8) suggests that background data should be collected on parents’ occupations and educational qualifications. Higher Education Funding Council for England (2007) Further Guidance on Evaluation Planning (Bristol: Higher Education Funding Council) available online at https://admin.hero.ac.uk/sites/practitioner/resources/Further%20Guidance%20on%20Evaluation%20Planning%20(April%202008).DOC

  13. Summary • Parents’ education and occupation are unrelated to the likelihood that a student will participate in HE – once examination grades are taken into account. • This challenges the WP agenda and the cultural capital account of differences in likelihood of participation. • Cultural capital has not been measured separately in previous studies. • When a robust measure of cultural capital is included in the analysis it is shown to have a significant effect after allowing for examination grades.

  14. From retention to engagement

  15. Engagement and Student Choice • There is a relationship between student levels of cultural capital and the methods used to research and select a university place. • “Everyone in my family has been to university. I just picked up on that”. • “I found that I started to choose where to go on how nice it looked in the prospectus”.

  16. Engaging with Staff • “They are way up there. I am not sure how comfortable I am going to be talking to them”. • “Not a problem. It’ll just be different”.

  17. Engaging with Staff through e-mail • “E-mail is a very good way of seeking advice. You can think about what you want to ask in advance and take your time over it”. • “I am not very comfortable seeking advice because I am not on a one-to-one basis with my lecturers. I am more comfortable e-mailing my lecturers”.

  18. Engagement and Teaching and Learning approaches • No cultural capital affect apparent here. Both groups recognised the need to adapt from ‘spoon-feeding’ to independent learning

  19. Engagement and habitus • High cultural capital students are more likely to live on-campus than low cultural capital students. • Habitus – “..the collectivity of norms and practices of a social group”. (Yorke and Longden, 2004)

  20. Conclusions • There is a relationship between cultural capital levels and confidence to interact with teaching staff. • Institutional habitus may be affected by low cultural capital students choosing to live off-campus

  21. Conclusions • Cultural capital does exert an effect in addition to grades • WP targeting is currently on the wrong track • Careers provision in Year 12 does not take account of cultural capital level

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