Cultural capital, teacher bias, and educational success: New evidence from monozygotic twins

TY - JOUR

T1 - Cultural capital, teacher bias, and educational success

T2 - New evidence from monozygotic twins

AU - Jæger, Mads Meier

AU - Møllegaard, Stine

PY - 2017/7

Y1 - 2017/7

N2 - In this paper we use new data on Danish monozygotic (MZ) twins to analyze the effect of cultural capital on educational success. We report three main findings. First, cultural capital has a positive direct effect on the likelihood of completing the college-bound track in Danish secondary education. Second, cultural capital leads teachers to form upwardly biased perceptions of children's academic ability, but only when their exposure to children's cultural capital is brief (as in oral and written exams) rather than long (as in grades awarded at the end of the school year). Third, we find that the positive direct effect of cultural capital on educational success is higher for children from high-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds than for those from low-SES backgrounds. This result suggests that high-SES children are more likely to be in schooling contexts that enable them to convert cultural capital into educational success.

AB - In this paper we use new data on Danish monozygotic (MZ) twins to analyze the effect of cultural capital on educational success. We report three main findings. First, cultural capital has a positive direct effect on the likelihood of completing the college-bound track in Danish secondary education. Second, cultural capital leads teachers to form upwardly biased perceptions of children's academic ability, but only when their exposure to children's cultural capital is brief (as in oral and written exams) rather than long (as in grades awarded at the end of the school year). Third, we find that the positive direct effect of cultural capital on educational success is higher for children from high-socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds than for those from low-SES backgrounds. This result suggests that high-SES children are more likely to be in schooling contexts that enable them to convert cultural capital into educational success.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - Cultural capital

KW - Educational success

KW - Monozygotic twins

KW - Family background

KW - Inequality

KW - Fixed effects

U2 - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.04.003

DO - 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.04.003

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 28599767

SN - 0049-089X

VL - 65

SP - 130

EP - 144

JO - Social Science Research

JF - Social Science Research

ER -