This reading focuses on the idea of cultural capital and how it effects upper and lower-income students differently. It also defines cultural capital, coined by Pierre Bourdeui, and describes the levels of access of that students can possess. There is substantial argument about how the people that possess cultural capital are key holders to information and resources that are beneficial for the success in higher education and the importance of this. Furthremore, the authors analyze the success and effects, such as enrollment rates and GPA, that this model has on both types of students. Since cultural capital is inherited, this article presents evidence of how the parents of prospective college students that hold this capital help their children throughout the process and what information that are bestowing upon them. Lastly, they touch on the issue of social mobility and how cultural capital keeps the class divide widening.
Susan A. Dumais is a professor in the Department of Sociology at Louisiana State University. She graduated from Harvard University after receiving her PhD. Her research focuses on the ways that society is stratified, particularly in the areas of class and gender, and within the contexts of education and culture. She has written numerous articles pertaining to cultural capital and the barriers that first generation students face during college.
Unfortunately, I could not find sufficient information about the second author Aaryn Ward.
The largest key term in this paper is cultural capital. It is defined by expert David Swartz as " verbal facility, general cultural awareness, aesthetic preferences, information about the school system, and education credentials" (246). This concept is used as the main principal throughout the article. Another concept in this article is conceptualization of cultural capital. This states that we use this "study a critical juncture in a students' lives; the transition from high school to college, and the subsequent college experience" (249). They believe that having cultural capital is not enough, but the individual must activate it at certain points for it to become useful and be used to their advantage.
"Cultural capital is unequally distributed in society, with the middle and upper class families having more and working and lower class families having less (or none at all)" (247). This quote is very important in my argument because it pinpoints that there is a huge divide in the possession of cultural capital. This is one of the central arguments that are being used throughout my paper.
"first-generation students remain at a disadvantage compared to their non-first-generation peers: they have lower enrollment rates, lower levels of academic and social integration, lower grade point averages while in school, and lower rates of retention and graduation" (250). This is useful information when discussing the problems that first generation students face because it shows you the areas in which they currently are falling behind and they are important the success at college. This proves that first-generation students have to work that much harder to be on the same level as some of their peers.
"It also appears as though first-generation status serves as more of a barrier for initial college access than it does for attainment of a bachelor's degree" (262). This quote is beneficial to the paper topic because although students have a hard time during school and not all finish with a degree, the first step is often the hardest and most detrimental to the success of first-generation students. They need to go through square one to move on the the second part of the journey.
This information helps me explore my research question because it gives me the meat behind this idea of cultural capital that is being talked about throughout my paper. It also highlights the different ways in which the divide between the classes, the information deficiency, and cultural capital all have intertwining and significant roles. I will be using a lot of information from this article to argue my topic to the reader. This is the most helpful article to my paper subject so far.
No comments:
Post a Comment