Improving Students’ Cultural Capital Through Business-University-School Collaboration

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Abstract

This study presented findings of a qualitative study on improving cultural capital for students from working and lower classes. Project W, which is an attempt of school improvement through business-university-school (B-U-S) collaboration in Hong Kong, was selected to be examined. Through the lens of cultural capital, and the three approaches to augment students’ cultural capital (cultural suicide model, cultural complement model and cultural integrity model), our study analyzed what strategies in Project W have been used to improve students’ three forms of cultural capital, including the embodied state, the objectified state, and the institutionalized state (Bourdieu, 1986), and how these strategies take effect. The data that informed this paper was collected from two secondary schools involved in Project W.

Authors

• Jiawei Zhang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

• Chishing Chiu, The Chinese University of Hong Kong