The Ofsted guidelines on school inspections for 2019 report on something rather exciting, but also quite controversial for those interested in the sociology of education. For the first time, Ofsted plans to assess the extent to which schools help young children build their ‘cultural capital’.
This is a term first used by the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu in the 1970s, mainly to describe the class and cultural advantages young people from white, middle-class backgrounds may bring with them into schooling. That is, the way they may speak in similar ways to teachers, have useful experience of museums and other cultural spaces, and the extent to which their parents are able to help them achieve well at school.
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