Cultural capital in non-white majority schools: a critical exploration of cultural ethos and pedagogy

ABSTRACT

This is a critical exploration of how and to what extent the embodied cultural capital of non-white students is positioned within the meso-level space of cultural ethos and pedagogy of two majority non-white schools in Leicester. It does this in relation to wider metanarratives of colonial and monocultural ideology and racialised society. Drawing on the postcolonial literature, Bourdieu’s critical sociology and Lefebvre’s concept of ‘spatial codes’, this study searches for evidence of institutional, symbolic, and objectified non-white cultural capital within the research sites. It concludes by noting how non-white students must continually attempt to prove the worth of their embodied cultural capital by inserting it into the cultural ethos and pedagogy of each institution in the absence of structures that allow for the democratic production of culture, even in majority non-white institutions such as these.

KEYWORDS:

• Classroom & school based research
• cultural pedagogy
• Bourdieu
• cultural capital
• Lefebvre
• postcolonial/whiteness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. ‘British Values’ consist of four values to be ‘actively’ promoted in schools as part of central government’s Prevent strategy.

2. Prevent is part of central government’s counter-terrorism strategy where certain authorities (such as schools) look to identify those in danger of being drawn into terrorist-related activities.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mathew Barnard

Mathew Barnard gained his PhD from the University of Birmingham. His research interests include leadership and management within education in regard to institutional ethos and cultural pedagogy, and the promotion of non-white cultural capital within this space.