Cultural Capital, Student Achievement, and Educational Reproduction: The Case of Greece

Abstract

This paper studies the role of cultural capital in the relationship between social background inequalities and educational attainment. Using data from a national sample of Greek high school seniors, we assess a model that cultural capital mediates the relationships of school success with family class position and socioeconomic status. While the analysis finds that both father's class position andfamily socioeconomic status determine a student's cultural capital, we find no evidence that cultural capital has direct or indirect effects on educational achievement. While reproduction of the social hierarchy in Greece occurs through schooling, student ability and effort are the major mechanisms maintaining and legitimating the process.