Family cultural activities and educational expectations of Day High School students

Abstract

This paper, which uses the concepts of ‘cultural capital’ and ‘practice’ from Pierre Bourdieu’s theory, presents the family cultural activities that Day High School students in Greece adopt in their everyday life and which contribute to shaping their cultural capital. Moreover, an attempt is also made to investigate the role played by the family cultural activities that students adopt, in shaping their expectations concerning their educational future. The research sample consists of 1430 2nd grade Day High School students, who attended High School during the school year 2017-2018, and the research data were collected using a questionnaire. The research results showed that the students in the sample tend to accumulate and integrate into the system of their predispositions a smaller or larger volume of cultural capital, which is a function of the range of family cultural activities they adopt in their everyday lives. In addition, the students’ everyday family cultural activities tend to ‘organize’ the system of their expectations, defining their future educational careers, and orienting them to different educational outlets