Cultural Capital And Its Impact On Educational Experience And Attainment
Cultural capital plays a critical role in the education system. Cultural capital refers to the person’s familiarity with the dominant societal and cultural norms described by society. Cultural capital included embodies structures such as preferences, mannerisms and language, objectified structures such as books, works of art and cultural goods, and institutionalized structures such as educational credentials (Jæger & Møllegaard, 2017). Cultural capital is greatly embedded in the educational materials and systems and has a significant impact on educational attainment and experience through its description of social norms and values.
The education system focused on engaging academic attainment and morality. Morality is one of the building blocks of cultural capital. Society ascribes various positive qualities for educational achievements. For instance, Cultural capital positively impacts educations success. The relationship between cultural capital and educational outcomes is casual and direct. Students with cultural capital are more likely to complete their upper secondary education than their counterparts with less cultural competency (Jæger & Møllegaard, 2017). Students with high levels of cultural capital have a better understanding of their cultural norms and characters. Such students often have an advantage in the education system.
The hidden curriculum concept best explains the role of cultural capital in education. The hidden curriculum refers to unintended factors that affect education, such ad values, beliefs, and norms (Barthes, 2018). Jæger and Møllegaard (2017) explained that cultural competence is demonstrated through teacher bias and positively impacts the school's GPA. The teacher often rewards students who demonstrate high cultural competency levels because they understand informal codes that align with the education system. Teachers’ focus on cultural competency may result in discrimination and inequalities in the education system. Children from low socioeconomic backgrounds are likely to be unaware of cultural capital and may have adverse educational outcomes in the teaching method, school organizational structure, and curriculum. The social values, norms, and beliefs have a hidden impact on educational outcomes and may result in inequality within the education environment.
The hidden curriculum also has a positive impact on ensuring that students have a common culture. Barthe (2018) explained that the hidden curriculum establishes social regulation that ensures that student is taught a common subsystem of norms and culture that enables them to participate in a wide range of domains with the society. The hidden curriculum's influence helps to ensure that students do away with most of their identity and appreciate diversity and social relations.
