Private Schools and Cultural Capital - (Emerald Studies in the Sociology of Education) by Rachel Louise Stenhouse (Hardcover)

About the Book

Private Schools and Cultural Capital offers insight into the workings of private schools continuing to provide an advantage for their students, reporting on the role played by teachers' social and cultural capital in reproducing privilege in private schools.

Book Synopsis

Private schooling continues to be a divisive issue. In Britain, there has been a rapid expansion of overseas branches being opened by elite British private schools. Private Schools and Cultural Capital offers insight into the workings of private schools that continue to provide an advantage for their students. Author Rachel Louise Stenhouse reports on the role played by teachers' social and cultural capital in reproducing privilege in private schools and how this capital is transmitted to students through their preparation for application to elite universities.

Drawing on data from interviews with teachers, observations of lessons and teachers' own reflections to provide an insight into the workings of one private school in England, Stenhouse contributes to an understanding of how private schools are able to continue to reproduce the privilege that their students enjoy. Using the theories of Pierre Bourdieu as a fitting framework in which to understand how private school privilege is reproduced, the chapters also provoke discussion about the prominence of "cultural capital" in the Ofsted school inspection framework and the role played by teachers in private schools in developing cultural capital in their students.

A timely addition to the literature on private school advantage, this is a compelling resource for international readers working in policy, academia, or education with an interest in social inequality and in particular the workings of private schools.

Review Quotes

Combining empirical research and a sophisticated theoretical lens, this book offers a significant contribution to the field of educational sociology and the impact teachers' capital and perceptions can have on the students they teach. This book provides the clearest account to date of how teachers' capital operates in private schools and the potential impact of this on pupils' educational outcomes. The author's analysis is accessible to both students and academics in the field of education, making this an ideal text to underpin an undergraduate or postgraduate taught module.

In this book Rachel Stenhouse brings new insight to the processes of sustaining privilege in the U.K via the education system. Using the evidence from her unique study, readers are offered a new perspective on how capitals are mobilized within the private education system, specifically in relation to Oxbridge, and more broadly, Redbrick university acceptance.

Policymakers, educational sociologists and those interested in societal inequalities will find this book useful, and it is written in an accessible format that will appeal to both undergraduates and pots-graduate studying education, childhood and/or sociology. It is particularly useful in applying Bourdieu's theoretical framework to an analysis of new evidence on the internal working of private education focusing on the under researched aspect of Oxbridge preparation. Rachel's new knowledge and analysis is a important contribution to the field at a time when educational and societal inequalities are increasing.

About the Author

Rachel Louise Stenhouse is Senior Lecturer in Education at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She has worked in education for over 15 years, in primary and secondary schools, in both the state and private sectors, and more recently, in initial teacher education. She has been a governor of a local primary school for 7 years. Her research concerns social justice, mathematics education and initial teacher education.