A Study on the Effect of Cultural Capital on Student Academic Achievement: The Case of Taiwan

• Main Authors: CHENG, WEN-PENG, 鄭文鵬
• Other Authors: TANG,GUANG-DING
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/99437730573689519047

博士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 教育學系 === 102 === The idea of Cultural capital raised by P. Bourdieu has become a key concept in sociology of education to explain the inequality of educational opportunity. However, the effect of cultural capital on student achievement is still in debate since DiMaggio’s quantitative research in 1982. These controversies include the operational definition of cultural capital, the role of teachers, the influence results from gender, and effects of cultural capital and habitus. Based on the background, the study proposed a new model to explain how cultural capital, habitus, and teachers’ perception of students mediated the relationship between school success and family socioeconomic status. To achieve the goal, the study used Taiwan Education Panel Study as the source and analyzed the data with structural equation models. The research findings showed that: 1. Both cultural capital and habitus had significant effect on students’ score. However, the total effect that habitus displayed was stronger than it of cultural capital. 2. Cultural capital and habitus could help to explain how socioeconomic status influenced students’ academic achievements. But cultural capital had more significant influence on female students than on males, habitus had more significant influence on male students than on females. 3. Teachers’ perception of students was the critical variable that influenced the effect of cultural capital on students’ scores, especially for male students. 4. The results of Taiwan supported cultural reproduction theory. At last, suggestions according to the findings were proposed.