Cultural Capital and Academic Success: An Empirical Analysis of Underlying Mechanisms

Core Research Question: How do children accumulate and convert cultural capital?

Funding: LEAD Graduate School & Research Network
Team: Dr. Nicole Tieben, Prof. Dr. Pia Schober (Principal Investigators), Karoline Mikus (Doctoral Student)
Duration: 2015 to 2021
Status: ongoing
Data Sources: National Educational Panel Study (NEPS)
Geographic Space: Germany

According to Bourdieu, cultural capital is one of the central resources used for educational success of children. However, cultural capital is unequally distributed among the families of origin and lower educated parents are less familiar with the “legitimate culture” of the middle classes. Numerous studies show the strong association between parental cultural capital and children’s educational success. We nevertheless know very little about how parents transfer their cultural capital to their children and how children convert cultural capital into educational success. Bourdieu assumes that, in the school context, cultural capital primarily has a symbolic function: familiarity with the legitimate culture signals affiliation with the dominant class and is positively sanctioned in school. The project examines how parents lay the foundations for later success already in early childhood – for example by arranging leisure activities that are beneficial for children’s cognitive and non-cognitive development. Moreover, we examine how different types of cultural capital translate into school success – we distinguish skill-generating and symbolic cultural activities. For the empirical analyses, we use data from NEPS and different longitudinal modelling strategies.

Publications (*SSCI)

Mikus, K. (submitted April 2021): Passing on educational advantaged. The role of cultural capital and concerted cultivation. Dissertation, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen

* Mikus, K., Tieben, N., and Schober, P. S. (2021): Concerted cultivation in early childhood and social inequalities in cognitive skills: Evidence from a German panel study. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 72, 100547

* Mikus, K., Tieben, N., and Schober, P. S. (2020): Children’s conversion of cultural capital into educational success: The symbolic and skill-generating functions of cultural capital. British Journal of Sociology of Education 41/2, 197-217

Presentations and Posters

2018

– Amsterdam Centre for Inequality Studies, Amsterdam: Organized leisure activities in early childhood and social inequalities in cognitive and social skills
– ISA RC28 Spring Meeting, Seoul: Organized leisure activities in early childhood and social inequalities in cognitive and social skills

2017

– ISA RC28 Spring Meeting, Cologne: Channels of reproduction: Parents’ transmission of cultural capital and children’s conversion of cultural capital into high educational performance
– 5. Tagung der Gesellschaft für Empirische Bildungsforschung, Heidelberg: Channels of reproduction: Parents’ transmission of cultural capital and children’s conversion of cultural capital into high educational performance

2016

– National Educational Panel Study Nutzerkonferenz, Bamberg: Channels of reproduction: Parents’ active resource transmission efforts and their influence on children’s educational performance

Teaching Quality and Educational Inequalities

Core Research Question: Can teaching quality reduce social inequality in educational achievement?

Funding: LEAD Graduate School & Research Network
Team: Dr. Nicole Tieben, Prof. Dr. Benjamin Fauth, Prof Dr. Steffen Hillmert (Principal Investigators), Cansu Atlay (Doctoral Student)
Duration: 2015 to 2019
Status: completed
Data Sources: National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), PISA-I
Geographic Space: Germany

It has been an ongoing debate in the Sociology of Education if schools can be the “great equalizer” by compensating for a lack of resources in the home environment. While earlier theoretical work suggested that schools often maintain or increase inequalities by favouring those from high socioeconomic backgrounds, more recent work advocated for the idea that schools also have the potential to compensate and even counter parental disadvantages. For instance, schools with high teaching quality may indeed reduce the disparities between the students. However, the role of teaching quality has not been given enough attention by researchers examining the extent to which schools maintain, reduce or enlarge the existing inequalities between the students. We know from research on differential teaching, that teaching quality has an interactive relationship with student characteristics. There is, however, little consensus on how teachers’ practices and interactions with the students in the classroom can result in disparities in student outcomes. This project tackles the question to which extent teaching can have differential effects on students with different socioeconomic backgrounds.

Publications (*SSCI)

* Fauth, B., Atlay, C., Dumont, H., Decristan, J. (2021). Does what you get depend on who you are with? Effects of student composition on teaching quality. Learning and Instruction 71, 101355

Atlay, C. (2019). Teaching quality and educational inequalities: An interdisciplinary inquiry of the relationship between student background and teaching quality. Dissertation, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Wirtschafts- und SOzialwissenschaftliche Fakultät

* Atlay, C., Tieben, N., Fauth, B., and Hillmert, S. (2019): The Role of Socioeconomic Background and Prior Achievement for Students’ Perception of Teacher Support. British Journal of Sociology of Education 40/7, 970-991

* Atlay, C., Tieben, N., Hillmert, S., and Fauth, B. (2019): Instructional quality and achievement inequality: How effective is teaching in closing the social achievement gap? Learning and Instruction 63, 101211

Presentations & Posters

2018

– EARLI Groningen: The Role of Socioeconomic Background and Prior Achievement for Students‘ Perception of Teacher Support
– EARLI Groningen: Filter of Entitlement? Relationships between SES, Prior Achievement and Students’ Perception of Teacher Support
– RC28 Seoul: Perception through the entitlement filter: Relationsship between socioeconomic background and student’s perception of teacher support
– GradCollab Conference University of Delaware: Relationsship between socioeconomic background and student’s perception of teacher support

2017

– RC28 Cologne: Impact of teaching quality on achievement inequality in Germany: Can teaching compensate for background disadvantages?

Higher Education Students with Vocational Qualifications

Core Research Question: How do students with vocational qualifications perform in higher education?

Funding: LEAD Graduate School & Research Network
Team: Dr. Nicole Tieben (Principal Investigator), Dr. Anne-Kathrin Knauf (Doctoral Student)
Duration: 2015 to 2019
Status: completed
Data Sources: National Educational Panel Study (NEPS)
Geographic Space: Germany

About one third of all students in German higher education institutions completed vocational education and training before enrolment. Despite their non-negligible presence in the German higher education system, this group has not been subject to systematic research yet. We have little knowledge about the pathways that students take into higher education, age structures, resources, restrictions and how these factors shape the college experience of the so-called „non-traditional“ students. The project therefore aims to examine the social and academic integration of students who have entered higher education in Germany with vocational qualifications. Moreover, the project gives an overview of the various types of non-linear entry pathways and the congruence between prior vocational training and the chosen field of study.

Publications (*SSCI)

Tieben, N. (2020): Ready to Study? Academic readiness of traditional and non-traditional students in Germany. Studia Paedagogica 25/4, 11-34.

* Tieben, N. (2020): Non-completion, transfer, and dropout of traditional and “non-traditional” students in Germany. Research in Higher Education 61/1, 117-141.

Knauf, A.-K. (2019): Die Situation Studierender mit vor-tertiärer Berufsausbildung an deutschen Hochschulen. Dissertation, Eberhrd Karls Universität Tübingen

* Tieben, N. (2019): Brückenkursteilnahme und Studienabbruch in Ingenieurwissenschaftlichen Studiengängen. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 22/5, 1175–1202.

* Tieben, N. and Knauf, A.K. (2019): Die Studieneingangsphase Studierender mit vor-tertiärer beruflicher Ausbildung: allgemeiner und fachspezifischer Kenntnisstand und Studienvorbereitung. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft 22/2, 347-371.

Educational and Occupational Careers of Tertiary Education Dropouts

Core Research Question: Where do people end up after dropping out of higher education?

Funding: German Science Foundation (DFG Priority Programme Education as a Lifelong Process)
Team: Dr. Nicole Tieben (Principal Investigator), Dr. Mirte Scholten (Doctoral Student)
Duration: 2012 to 2016
Status: completed
Data Sources: National Educational Panel Study (NEPS)
Geographic Space: Germany

Approximately 20-25% of all first year students in Germany never graduate from tertiary education. Tertiary education drop-out is often perceived as „failure“, but the reasons for dropping out are as multifaceted as the subsequent educational and occupational careers. A number of studies exist that examine the reasons for drop-out and the short-term whereabouts of drop-outs. The long-term development of their life-courses however, is not explored. Equally untouched by empirical social research are the conditioning resources and restrictions, the resulting path-dependence and selection-mechanisms before drop-out and after. In the planned research project we aim to scrutinize on the long-term educational and occupational pathways of tertiary education drop-outs. A special focus will be on the status- and competence- attainment through job-mobility and experience, as well as further education in and outside the company. Furthermore we strive to investigate the role of own and family resources in the process of drop-out decisions and the subsequent pathways. We are especially interested if the lack of formal qualifications can be compensated or substituted by the use or acquisition of alternative resources.

Publications (*SSCI)

* Tieben, N. (2020): Non-completion, transfer, and dropout of traditional and “non-traditional” students in Germany. Research in Higher Education 61/1, 117-141

Scholten, M. (2017): Causes and consequences of higher-education non-completion in Germany. Dissertation, Universität Mannheim

Scholten, M. and Tieben, N. (2017): Vocational qualification as safety‑net? Education‑to‑work transitions of higher education dropouts in Germany. Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training9/7, 1-17

Scholten, M. and Tieben, N. (2017): Labour Market Outcomes of Higher-Education Dropouts in Germany, How formal Vocational Qualifications Shape Education-to-Work Transitions and Occupational Status. Mannheim: MZES Working Paper 168.

Tieben, N. (2016): Verbleibe und Berufsstatus von Studienabbrechern mit und ohne vor-tertiärer Berufsausbildung. Datenreport 2016, Schwerpunkt Studienabbrecher. Bonn: Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung, 409-415

Tieben, N. (2016): Studienverlauf, Verbleib und Berufsstatus von Studienabbrechern. Expertise zum Datenreport. Bonn: Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung.