A study on cultural capital’s impact on public senior secondary school students’ academic achievement in Shanghai

Thesis

The academic achievement gap caused by socioeconomic status (SES) has drawn increasing attention in the field of education over the last few decades. Amongst the various theoretical frameworks used to investigate such SES achievement gap, Bourdieu’s cultural capital as a conceptual tool is one of the most studied, whilst it still remains largely unclear as to how cultural capital may manifest and navigate itself in the Chinese context. This study adopted a quantitative approach and a survey design to explore the composition of cultural capital in China and examine the impact cultural capital may have on public senior secondary school students’ academic achievement in Shanghai. The findings indicated that there was an association between cultural capital and academic achievement, and objectified cultural capital had a more significant effect on students’ academic achievement compared to embodied cultural capital. Meanwhile, a significant interaction effect was identified between objectified cultural capital and SES, suggesting that higher SES students may reap more benefits from possessing objectified cultural capital than their low SES peers.

Authors: Shen, C

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-xq9d9b7wy
• Type of award: MSc taught course
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: China; RDM2024; survey using questionnaires; RDM; quantitative research; cultural capital; educational inequality; primary data
• Subjects: Income distribution; Questionnaires; Quantitative research; Culture; Education