Reproduction and Disruption of Educational Engagement Through Parental Involvement in School

• In Event: Cultural Capital

Abstract

Social reproduction theories often do not adequately explain how and why those from privilege fail to retain educational benefits despite typically entering school with the values and dispositions of the dominant culture. I trace children’s patterns of behavioral engagement and the ways their parents are involved in elementary school to explain how and why social reproduction sometimes fails. Using longitudinal behavioral engagement indicators in the ECLS-K:2011, I show that parental involvement in education can be advantageous for both socioeconomically advantaged and disadvantaged children, across parental education or family income distinctions. I suggest that formal education socializes and confers additional educational advantages on children regardless of socioeconomic background, contingent upon the child’s compliance with behaviors representing the values of schooling.

Author

• Jaymes Pyne, Stanford University