Cultural Capital as Class Strength and Gendered Educational Choices of Chinese Female Students in the United Kingdom

Abstract

The present qualitative study analyzes how cultural capital, gender, class, and family involvement impact Chinese female students’ aspirations of studying in the United Kingdom. We investigated how these factors facilitate or limit female students’ choice of study destination, as well as choices of subject and program. Data were gathered through participant observation and semi-structured interviews in a British university. A total of 25 young Chinese female students from different subject areas took part in the semi-structured interviews. Out of those, five students are undergraduates, 11 are taught master’s students, and the other nine students are doctoral candidates. Most of the undergraduates and postgraduates are from middle-class families, while some of the Ph.D. students are from working-class families. The results of the content analysis were examined in light of gender and cultural capital theory. It was found that although there exist differences within the middle-class families regarding the possession of cultural capital, many female students from middle-class families obtained high levels of cultural capital, and these students usually internalized the idea of pursuing a place in the United Kingdom’s tertiary education system as a way of enhancing women’s competency in future job markets. Furthermore, compared with working-class students, many respondents’ choice of subject and program was highly gendered, as their families expect them to live a feminine life by choosing “appropriate” feminine subjects. Therefore, despite having the privilege to study abroad, female middle-class students’ educational choices are still constrained by gender and class.

¿Quedarse o Regresar? La Satisfacción y Motivaciones de Estudiantes Chinos que Estudian en el Extranjero

“…Pero en el extranjero los estudiantes chinos tienen educación de las hijas. Tal vez esto se deba al ambiente laboral negativo para las mujeres en China que las obliga a buscar una mejor educación y obtener un título universitario (Zhang & Tang, 2021).…”

Factors that influence the intent to pursue a master’s degree: evidence from Shandong Province, China

“…In addition, some external factors such as the opinions of parents and friends, family financial situation, and the prestige of the university can also influence students' intent to pursue an MD (Buchmann and Dalton, 2002;Mullen et al, 2003;Berggren, 2006;Zhang and Tang, 2021). Several studies have found that parents' expectations and encouragement have a positive and significant impact on students' intent to pursue an MD (Guerin et al, 2014;To et al, 2014).…”

“…Numerous scholars have verified that the socioeconomic status of the family has an impact on individual career development (Fan and Williams, 2010;Aguayo et al, 2011;Flores et al, 2017;Zhang and Tang, 2021). Its influence on behavior and cognition is usually indirect rather than direct.…”

Actioning sustainability through tourism entrepreneurship: Women entrepreneurs as change agents navigating through the field of stakeholders

“…Cultural capital can be highly instrumental in bridging economic and social capitals to empower women with symbolic capital, particularly in the context of sustainable tourism. Social capital renders itself in such a way that it equips a social actor with the capacity to influence a group or individuals or to position themselves in a social setting (Bourdieu, 1986;Zhang & Tang, 2021). In a pertinent study, Yavuz, Karatas-Ozkan, and Howells (2014) show how the transformation of different forms of capital that social entrepreneurs obtain in the Brazilian context helped them fight racial inequalities and discrimination, which led to a change in institutional regulations and norms in different fields.…”