Cultural Capital and Pedagogic Communication

Abstract

The typical functionalist definition of the functions of education takes no notice of the newlinecontribution which the educational system makes to the reproduction of the social structure by newlinesanctioning the hereditary transmission of cultural capital. Pierre Bourdieu (1977) in his book newline Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture has discussed about Cultural Capital which newlineis inherited by students from her family background. For Bourdieu, Cultural Capital is acquired newlinein the systematic cultivation of a sensibility in which principles of selection implicit within an newlineenvironment translate, through inculcation, into principles of consciousness. Educational newlinesuccess, according to Bourdieu, entails a whole range of cultural behaviour, extending to newlineapparently non-academic features like gait, dress, or accent. Bourdieu categorized Language as newline Symbolic Capital which plays an imperative role in class room performances by the students in newlinemainstream education system. Language is not simply an instrument of communication: it also newlineprovides, together with a richer or poorer vocabulary, a more or less complex system of newlinecategories, so that the capacity to decipher and manipulate complex structure, whether logical or newlineaesthetic and depends on the complexity of the language transmitted by the family. The influence newlineof linguistic capital, particularly manifest in the first years of schooling when the understanding newlineand use of language are the major points of influence for teachers assessments. Basil Bernstein newline(1971) in his book Class, Code and Control Theoretical Studies towards Sociology of newlineLanguage has analyzed the relationship between social class, language and educational newlinetransmission. According to him, the school is an institution where every item in the present is newlinefinely linked to a distant future; consequently there is not a serious clash of expectations between newlinethe school and the middle-class child. For Bernstein, there is conformity to authority and an newlineacceptance of the role of the teacher, irrespective of psychological relationships to her/his newlinepersonality. Nonetheless, it cannot be said that the feelings of rebellion will not appear. newline