Scholars such as Annette Lareau and Jessica McCrory Calarco have identified the role of parent’s transmission of cultural capital onto their children and the impact of such on educational success. While it is possible for first-generation college students to come from a high income family, it is unlikely that their adolescent education parallels that of continuing-generation students. As stated by Dumais, “the acquisition of cultural capital and subsequent access to academic rewards depend upon the cultural capital passed down by the family, which in turn, is largely dependent on social class .” The social class position of an individual, in and of itself, is a form of cultural capital . Mechanisms for child rearing are chosen based on
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Exclusionary practices such as high tuition rates and requiring high SAT or ACT scores thwart access to students from low SES backgrounds . Higher tuition rates insinuate that parents and/or loans are responsible for covering the costs. It is common for higher SES parents to save money and plan for their children to attend college which further implicates access for students of a lower SES . The gap of access is growing, with considerably less students going to college from low SES in 1992 than in 1982. This finding suggests that low SES students are constrained by the persisting impact of social class on …show more content…
Children who participate in “highbrow” activities such as painting and sculpture classes held unequal advantages to those who did not participate. The greatest effect was seen in children who were twelve years old or younger but with diminishing effects in later transitions (entering college and graduating college). Participating more than once created cumulative effects that did aid in later transitions. However, the parent’s participation in such activities was found to be greater than the individual child’s participation and greatest when both parents and children participated. This supports Bourdieu’s theory of the habitus . What this means for first-generation college students is that they may be at a disadvantage because they are more likely to have lacked resources in their adolescence to support participation in activities deemed “highbrow” than their continuing-generation counterparts. Furthermore, they may be less likely to have parents who have participated in this activities, minimizing their chances for cumulative effects in the transition to higher education and
Exclusionary practices such as high tuition rates and requiring high SAT or ACT scores thwart access to students from low SES backgrounds . Higher tuition rates insinuate that parents and/or loans are responsible for covering the costs. It is common for higher SES parents to save money and plan for their children to attend college which further implicates access for students of a lower SES . The gap of access is growing, with considerably less students going to college from low SES in 1992 than in 1982. This finding suggests that low SES students are constrained by the persisting impact of social class on …show more content…
Children who participate in “highbrow” activities such as painting and sculpture classes held unequal advantages to those who did not participate. The greatest effect was seen in children who were twelve years old or younger but with diminishing effects in later transitions (entering college and graduating college). Participating more than once created cumulative effects that did aid in later transitions. However, the parent’s participation in such activities was found to be greater than the individual child’s participation and greatest when both parents and children participated. This supports Bourdieu’s theory of the habitus . What this means for first-generation college students is that they may be at a disadvantage because they are more likely to have lacked resources in their adolescence to support participation in activities deemed “highbrow” than their continuing-generation counterparts. Furthermore, they may be less likely to have parents who have participated in this activities, minimizing their chances for cumulative effects in the transition to higher education and