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 2019
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.

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: ongoing
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.

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.

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

More details on project homepage at MZES