Kappan editor Rafael Heller interviews Annette Lareau about her research into different experiences of childhood and family life. In her observations of families of different social classes, she learned that upper-middle-class families approach parenting as an act of "concerted cultivation" requiring ongoing attention, making them more…

This article explores how a formal state examination system operates as a tool which enables the cultural reproduction of the middle classes in an increasingly market-driven education system in Ireland. It is based on a study of a group of final-year girls approaching the high-stakes terminal Leaving Certificate examination. The success of this…

This article explores parents' use of private tutoring services for their primary school children in Sydney, Australia's largest city. Using Bernstein's theories of invisible and visible pedagogies, we look, through the eyes of a small group of middle-class Chinese-background interviewees, at the tensions between certain pedagogic forms associated…

Empirical research on cultural and social capital has generally ignored the key role of institutions in setting standards that determine the contingent value of this capital. Furthermore, many studies presume that the yielding of profit from cultural, social, and economic capital is automatic. Bourdieu's concept of field highlights the ''rules of…

Having noted that some use of Bourdieusian concepts in educational research is superficial, this paper offers a view of the distinctiveness of Bourdieu's concepts via the example of misrecognition, which is differentiated from the concept with the same name in Fraser's work. An account is given of a recent research project on white middle-class…

This dissertation focuses on the growing role of private, for-profit Independent Educational Consultants (IECs) in the college application process. Over the past two decades, an "admission industrial complex" of commercial enterprises designed to help students strategize about admissions and give them information about colleges has…

This practitioner action research using qualitative techniques of gathering data looks at the experiences of students in a mostly white, upper-middle class suburb who enrolled in a class that integrated mathematics with social justice issues. The researcher designed the curriculum and co-taught the one semester course. The data were collected from…

Background: Researchers have largely attributed achievement gaps between different groups of students in the United States to differences in resources, parent education, socioeconomic status (SES), and school quality. They have also shown how, through their "cultural productions," certain students may disadvantage themselves. Focus: This article…

An examination of the literature on the characteristics of at-risk students largely cites demographics, socio-economic factors and minority status as identifying factors (DeRidder, 1988; Green and Scott, 1995; Peng, Lee, and Walberg, 1992; Rodriguez, 1997). According to the National Center for Education Statistics (1994), minority students of low…