... in and the personal contacts we have) and of course, cultural capital. Cultural capital can broadly be described as our tastes and interests and was first conceived by Bourdieu when trying to "explain the unequal scholastic achievement of children originating from the different social classes" (Bourdieu, The Forms of Capital 1983). This is important when examining inequality in education because the ultimate aim of students in education is effectively to gain cultural capital in order to enter a career that will provide them with increased economic capital thus helping class mobility. If the purpose of schools is to increase the cultural capital of all of its students, then why is there such difference in achievement in relation to social class rather than on merit alone? Firstly it is important to think about cultural capital not just in terms of how much one has but what kind. Every social group has a ...

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