We blame the parents! A response to ‘Cultural capital as an explanation of variation in participation in higher education’ by John Noble and Peter Davies (British Journal of Sociology of Education 30, no. 5)

Abstract

This paper offers a response to a recent article where the authors argue cultural capital is the only determinant of the propensity of young people to seek to enter higher education, dismissing other indicators such as social class. This response questions the support the original authors draw from other literature and offers criticism of the sample used in their study, the survey tool employed, the analysis undertaken and their conclusions relating to the agenda of ‘widening participation’. In reality, the wider literature suggests that social class, as represented by parental occupation, continues to have a role in explaining educational trajectories, even once other factors are controlled for.

Keywords:

• social class
• higher education
• widening participation
• cultural capital
• methodology

Notes

1. In fact, the proportion might have been higher, but the questionnaire asked specifically only about progression directly from school, thus excluding those planning a gap year; an increasingly common phenomenon.