Chapter 2. Education and Habitus

The aim of this chapter is to focus particularly on the concept of habitus – primarily as described by Bourdieu – and its role in understanding how social inequalities are reproduced through the medium of the education system. It begins by defining habitus and the related concepts of ‘capital’ and ‘field’, before moving on to explain how researchers have linked these concepts to social inequality in the education system. Here, the focus falls firstly upon social class inequalities, and then turns to a discussion of how habitus is implicated in ethnic inequalities in education. Towards the end of the chapter, a critical eye is cast over habitus: to what extent is it really a useful concept in studying and explaining inequality in education? [Taken from introduction]