Graduation Year
2007
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
M.A.
Degree Granting Department
Sociology
Keywords
Cultural capital, Interviews, High school students, Student experience, Adolescents, Education, Prep schools, Independent schools, Elite culture, Social class
Abstract
This study explores the interconnectedness of social class, education, and cultural capital. Considered academically elite, the independent school is be an ideal environment to find increased instances and opportunities for the acquisition and reproduction of elite, or "dominant" cultural capital. By implementing an ethnographic approach within an independent school setting, this study attempts to illuminate the student experience through adolescents' eyes. Past cultural capital studies focus on the relationship between cultural capital and academic achievement and/or social reproduction; instead, this study focuses on the everyday student experiences as they point to potential indicators of cultural capital. Results suggest that students' perception of 'place' is primarily defined by the presence or absence of money. Overall, the students interviewed expressed contradictory feelings towards having money, rejecting and distancing themselves from some of the advantages associated with wealth while accepting and welcoming other aspects.
Scholar Commons Citation
Torres, Diana R., "Life as a student at an independent day school" (2007). USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/etd/2386
