Translating Bourdieu into the American context: the question of social class and family-school relations

Abstract

This paper affirms the relevance of Bourdieu's arguments concerning schooling and inequality to the sociology of education in the US. In doing so, it eschews abstract debates about “reproduction theory” in favor of an empirically grounded treatment. We begin by noting that Bourdieu's theoretical account of the educational system's role in perpetuating inequality was tailored to an institutional arrangement which is highly distinct from that presently found in the US in at least one key respect: whereas for Bourdieu connections between the school and the domestic sphere are “hidden” or “masked,” in the contemporary US they have become the focal point of a vast amount of educational research, discourse, and policy. Indeed, numerous institutional mechanisms exist which are intended to “harmonize” the environments formed by the home and school with respect to educational goals and practices. Our paper subsequently analyzes one of the most widespread such mechanisms: the parent–teacher conference. Using a set of detailed transcriptions of conferences between teachers and parents of middle-class children, on the one hand, and working-class and poor children, on the other, we examine the interaction that occurs in such conferences at the micro-level. It is our contention that, despite the institutional arrangement which prevails in the US, Bourdieu nevertheless provides the conceptual tools necessary to understand this interaction. Thus, within our data, stark differences are apparent in the amount and quality of the information exchanged in conferences as a function of the amount of cultural capital held by the parents. Similarly, parents’ symbolic capital (relative to that of teachers) is associated with differences in the authority situation that characterizes the conference, with middle-class parents exhibiting a pronounced willingness to criticize teachers, advocate on behalf of their children, and demand customized pedagogical assistance for them. On the basis of this data, we conclude that institutional mechanisms such as parent–teacher conferences can function as an indirect avenue through which social class impacts children's school experiences.