Cultural Capital at St Joseph’s

At St Joseph’s we wish to construct a curriculum that is ambitious and designed to give all learners the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. 

We want to ensure our pupils gain the essential knowledge that they need to be educated citizens, introducing them to the best that has been thought and said and helping them to engender an appreciation of human creativity and achievement.

What do we believe cultural capital is?

The idea of ‘cultural capital’ originated with the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who argued that, like material wealth, culturally valuable knowledge is a kind of capital.

 It refers to everything from tastes to manners, knowledge of the arts, economy, the world, communication skills and social skills. The more cultural capital a person has, the greater their chance of social mobility.

Knowledge is powerful if it enables children to follow and participate in debates on significant local, national and global issues. There are sound sociocultural reasons why children should experience the most prevalent and important ideas and creations to have emerged through human culture.

In order to ensure all children have equality of opportunity, we are ambitious with the knowledge and experiences all children are exposed to.

While we all occupy a position within society, we are defined not only by membership of a social class, but also by the ‘capital’ we can amass. We want to ensure each and every child has full access and no ceiling.

Why do we think Cultural Capital is Important? 

The real power of possessing shared cultural knowledge is that you have enough familiarity to easily navigate conversations with others who know what you know. When someone refers to ‘Room 101’ or ‘Big Brother’ you may recognise that these ideas come from Orwell’s 1984 without ever having read it yourself. 

And whenever someone refers to suffering “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” you know they’re channelling Shakespeare despite never having seen or studied Hamlet, and, most importantly, you know they’re saying they’ve had a run of bad luck.

The value of cultural capital – or cultural literacy to use E. D. Hirsch, Jr’s term – is that it consists of knowledge that it is useful for everyone to know. Being able to quote bits of Shakespeare or knowing Pythagoras’ theorem may seem like trivia, but it enables us to access society in a way which would be impossible if we didn’t know any of this. It’s important because so many other people know it. If some people know something and others don’t, those who don’t will find themselves excluded or marginalised from the group which does. 

How do we promote Cultural Capital?

We ensure that our curriculum is culturally rich for all pupils. We constantly ‘drip feed’ cultural references and experiences throughout our day to day life. 

In society and the media, references are often made to ‘assumed knowledge’ points. This concept was referenced in the “5,000 essential names, phrases, dates, and concepts,” Hirsch included in a Cultural Literacy list. The list represents the assumed knowledge necessary to read and understand articles in the New York Times. Because this knowledge is assumed, it’s not discussed or explained but merely referenced, indicating a latticework of those things which could empower us to think better about the world. It includes items as varied as the Labours of Hercules, Beethoven, “Lay on, Macduff ”, metabolism, planetary orbits, and Whistler’s Mother!

If we hear or read any of them, we share something that doesn’t then require further explanation. Even though we might not know details of these specific items, we understand the implied. This means when we encounter these terms we access schematic networks that provide additional, enriching information without needing to look anything up or ask anyone for explanations.

If recognising these sorts of terms is precisely what makes us culturally literate, we ensure we do our best to weave this stuff into the fabric of our curriculum. It doesn’t mean teachers teach whole lessons on Hercules, Macbeth or James McNeil Whistler, – just that these things – if they get sufficient mention – lodge in the brain. If any of these items are re-encountered, the tiny amounts of prior knowledge possessed create the possibility that stronger schematic connections can be formed more rapidly than otherwise.

This is not a ‘quiz’ curriculum - when will children ever need to know the capital of Mongolia, who wrote Tess of the D’Ubervilles, or when Queen Victoria died? Surely, if children ever did need to know such things they can look them up. Well, they can, but more they have to look up, the harder it is to make sense of anything they read.

Possessing knowledge is liberating. Knowing a little about a lot provides the intellectual velcro to which new ideas and information stick: the more superficial knowledge we have, the more likely we are to recognise ideas when they’re reintroduced, and the easier we find it to acquire greater depth. A broad network of superficial knowledge is a screed, smoothing out the roughness of ignorance and upon which something more durable and flexible can be laid.

The most important things to know are those things that last and which most influence other cultural developments; those things that inspire the most conversations backwards and forwards through time and across space; those things that allow us to trace our cultural inheritance through threads of thought from the discoveries of modern science and the synthesis of modern art back to their ancient origins. The more children know about their cultural inheritance, the more they can question, critique and respond to what has gone before.

The point of all this is to help children develop a more educated palate. When they are given a curriculum that offers them a broad sweep of culturally significant knowledge, they are empowered to say what they prefer from a position of knowing. Educated opinions have far more currency than ignorant ones. The greater the breadth of children’s knowledge, the greater their sense of connoisseurship, the more able they are to think critically, and the wider the range of options open to them.

At St Joseph’s we promote this ‘broad sweep’ of culture -through the music playing throughout our building, through to the trips to philharmonic halls, theatres and links to our local art gallery. We have a weekly ‘News Round’ session in which the children will discuss and debate local and global news and events, and are challenged to articulate and justify their views. Teachers and staff always look for opportunities to reference and promote any cultural references linked to our planned curriculum, so that in this way Cultural Capital can be threaded through and ‘drip fed’ throughout our school. 

Manners

Knowing how to behave appropriately in social situations is a vital skill. We give very high regard to manners and politeness. We model language such as “please”, “you’re welcome” and “thank you”. We encourage good table manners. We expect the children and adults to treat each other with respect.

Enjoy the arts

Our school has music playing throughout the building. This is often Classical, such as Mozart or Handel. We also have themed music - such as music from a particular composer or period, or contemporary - such as the Beatles when exploring local contexts. We sing often and explore music from different countries and in different styles.

We have lots of opportunities for music tuition, such as piano lessons, guitar club, ukulele club and choir. We learn about artists and artistic styles. We explore poetry and rhyme. We learn about different styles of dance and try them all out. We put together whole school productions and performances.

Work on words

We know that by the age of 3 children from wealthier families have typically heard 30 million more words than children from disadvantaged backgrounds – these children can have a six-month language gap by the age of 18 months. 

We try to reduce this gap by introducing new language every day. We never shy away from using new words because we’re worried children won’t understand them.

We encourage discussion and get children used to asking questions. We create schemas of language by introducing as many new banks of words relating to each topic as possible.

Address gaps early

Play is the best time to address language and social skill gaps. From EYFS we plan activities and enhancements that offer opportunities for new language. We model play to teach new social skills such as sharing, listening to each other and negotiating without conflict. 

Encourage aspiration

A key element of social mobility is having aspirations. We make our school an aspirational one. We celebrate achievements daily. 

We show children what careers are out there by introducing different role play areas in EYFS, holding Enterprise weeks, going on local walks and inviting people in to talk about their jobs. We address any “I couldn’t do that because…” assumptions.

Create a world of wonder

Through our teaching we ensure children experience the “awe and wonder” of the world we live in. We celebrate the beauty of the world of God’s creation.

We thrive in the outdoors by playing out in all weathers and embracing weather-related play and seasonal changes.

We introduce some tricky scientific language. We embed the urge to want to learn more.