Using Bourdieu’s concept of doxa to illuminate classed practices in an English fee-paying school

Abstract

Especially in research on the ‘classed practice’ of educational decision-making, it is striking how the Bourdieuian concepts of habitus and capital have dominated. With a tendency to focus on the middle-classes’ ability to accumulate and deploy cultural capital, less attention has been given to the role of the educational institution and its place in the field. This article draws from interviews and field notes taken from time spent within a fee-paying school in the south of England. I argue that the school and parents are engaged in the production, display and consumption of cultural capital. Through Bourdieu’s notion of ‘doxa’ we gain an understanding of how the school and parents negotiate a very particular classed practice.

Keywords:

• Bourdieu
• cultural capital
• doxa
• fee-paying institution

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the three anonymous reviewers of this article.

Notes

1. Fees range considerably depending on whether an institution is ‘boarding’ (where students live at school), or a ‘day’ school where they attend for five days per week. The most expensive boarding schools’ annual fees cost more than the national average wage in England (fees for Eton, for example, are in excess of £30,000 per annum). This compares with fees in some smaller, day schools of approximately £12,000 per annum.

2. A-levels are typically studied full-time by young people aged 16–18, although the A-level is just one of a number of qualifications designated as ‘level 3’ within the English Qualification Framework. A-levels provide access to higher education and students will usually study three or four subjects or sometimes a combination of A-levels and vocational programmes.

3. See http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article3137747.ece.