Cultural capital

The phrase ‘cultural capital’ is everywhere. In 2013, the then Education Secretary Michael Gove famously quoted Gramsci, saying The accumulation of cultural capital – the acquisition of knowledge – is the key to social mobility. Gove went on to say, you will find children learning to read using traditional phonic methods, times tables and poetry learnt by heart, grammar and spelling rigorously policed, the narrative of British history properly taught. And on that foundation those children then move to schools like Eton and Westminster – where the medieval cloisters connect seamlessly to the corridors of power. The term has gone on to be used ubiquitously as shorthand for offering working-class children the kind of knowledge that will open doors for them. Often it is presented in negative terms, as a gap, a deficit – something that teachers are failing to give to students. Usually, working-class children are perceived as ‘lacking’ it. In the new Ofsted inspection