Work

How preschool education perpetuates social inequality: An ethnographic study of the practical conditions of symbolic violence

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: This article presents an ethnographic study conducted in French pre‐kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms, investigating how education establishes and reinforces relations of sociocultural dominance. Building on Bourdieu and Passeron's concept of symbolic violence, we seek to uncover the mechanisms through which school socialization encourages the acceptance of the hierarchies it generates. The data suggest that this persuasion relies on set of interrelated processes: Schools organize the unequal profitability of family cultural practices and knowledge, obscure the realities of learning, and foster a meritocratic myth that naturalizes these inequalities. Moreover, children actively participate in their own subordination without realizing it. By documenting these processes, the study provides critical insights into how everyday schooling practices not only perpetuate social inequalities but also shape early on the idea that students form of themselves as both students and individuals and intensify concerns about self‐worth.

Source: Journal of Social Issues

DOI: 10.1111/josi.12654

Authors: Jean‐Claude Croizet, Mathias Millet

Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Université Clermont Auvergne, Laboratoire de Psychologie Sociale et Cognitive, Université de Poitiers, Groupe de Recherches Sociologiques sur les sociétés Contemporaines

Language: English

Topic: Social and Cultural Dynamics

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Quality education, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: green

Funder: Agence Nationale de la Recherche