The influence of a family’s cultural capital on the formation of the educational and occupational expectations of native and immigrant primary school students

Abstract

The present paper, which uses the concept of ‘cultural capital’ from the theory of Pierre Bourdieu, aims on the one hand to investigate the similarities and differences between the cultural capital of the families of native and immigrant students of primary schools in Greece, and on the other hand to correlate it with their expectations for their educational and occupational future. The research was carried out during the 2013-2014 school year with the use of a questionnaire. 408 students (358 natives and 50 immigrants) who attended sixth grade of state primary schools in the city of Patras participated. The results of this study showed that there were more differences than similarities between the cultural capital of the families in these two categories of research subjects and they focus on their cultural activities, as well as on cultural goods which exist in their house. It also emerged that the different forms of cultural capital of native and immigrant students correlate (positively or negatively) with their expectations for their educational and occupational future.