Legitimate Families: Institutional Capital and School Success

• In Event: 207 - Section on Sociology of Education Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 03. Family-School Relationships

Abstract

Sociologists who study social reproduction in U.S. school systems have experienced an awkward courtship with the concept of cultural capital. Although the concept’s reference to exclusive “high” culture fails to capture the U.S. case, Bourdieu’s theories of schooling aptly describe how families deploy symbolic capital that is validated and legitimated by schools. In this article, I delve into the “micro-politics” of family capital in schools using in-depth interviews with 60 teachers in three high schools that are highly segregated by race and class. I find that teachers evaluate “legitimate families” that succeed in supporting schooling using common criteria across school settings but that high-SES familes are far more likely to be deemed legitimate. Examining the variety of ways in which families can violate teachers’ criteria, I coin the more inclusive term “institutional capital” to describe the preferences, knowledge, habits, and resources individuals and families use to navigate social institutions such as schooling. Institutional capital is a promising concept to better understand how symbolic capital is deployed and evaluated within the formal structures and informal norms of U.S. institutions.

Author

• Jessica Cobb, College Access Plan