Cultural capital and the extracurricular activities of girls and boys in the college attainment process Export

@article{citeulike:1701923, abstract = {This paper uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey to assess the relationship between male and female student participation in various extra-curricular activities and those students' subsequent probability of going on to a 4-year college or university. Our goal is to assess the specific causal role these activities play in the college attainment process. A special feature of the analysis is that it examines extra-curricular activities in relation to two different levels of college attainment: the first stage looks at enrollment in any four-year college or university; the second stage looks only at enrollment in one of the nation's so-called elite, or most selective universities. This allows us to differentiate the effects of extra-curricular participation in ways germane to cultural capital theory, where elite "gatekeeping" is presumed to play a prominent role in the admissions process. We conclude that participation in extra-curricular cultural activities has different causal effects on college-bound and elite-college bound student populations. At the general college level, hands-on training in the arts appears to improve students' odds of going to college by bolstering their human capital but not their cultural capital. Direct exposure to the arts does not appear to improve students' chances of going to an "elite" college, though having parents interested in the arts does. These findings generally hold for both girls and boys, with several important exceptions: Contrary to the expectation that girls should benefit most from activities that are stereotypically female, and vice-versa, we actually find the opposite in some cases. At the elite college level, for example, participation in yearbook/school newspaper appears to benefit boys but not girls, though more girls report participating in this activity than boys. Thus, it may be that elite colleges do not simply seek students with high cultural capital but those who stand out, defy expectations, or are otherwise unique among their peers. On the other hand, we find little reason to believe that students can actually be taught or trained in the types of cultural competence valued by elite college admissions offices.}, author = {Kaufman, Jason and Gabler, Jay}, booktitle = {Gender, networks, and cultural capital}, citeulike-article-id = {1701923}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2004.02.001}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VC3-4C2NN3R-1/2/119630fdd8c169f01301d376308ad605}, doi = {10.1016/j.poetic.2004.02.001}, journal = {Poetics}, keywords = {admissions, college, college-choice}, month = {April}, number = {2}, pages = {145--168}, posted-at = {2007-09-27 16:50:51}, priority = {0}, title = {Cultural capital and the extracurricular activities of girls and boys in the college attainment process}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2004.02.001}, volume = {32}, year = {2004} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:1701923 L3 - citeulike-article-id:1701923 N2 - This paper uses data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey to assess the relationship between male and female student participation in various extra-curricular activities and those students' subsequent probability of going on to a 4-year college or university. Our goal is to assess the specific causal role these activities play in the college attainment process. A special feature of the analysis is that it examines extra-curricular activities in relation to two different levels of college attainment: the first stage looks at enrollment in any four-year college or university; the second stage looks only at enrollment in one of the nation's so-called elite, or most selective universities. This allows us to differentiate the effects of extra-curricular participation in ways germane to cultural capital theory, where elite "gatekeeping" is presumed to play a prominent role in the admissions process. We conclude that participation in extra-curricular cultural activities has different causal effects on college-bound and elite-college bound student populations. At the general college level, hands-on training in the arts appears to improve students' odds of going to college by bolstering their human capital but not their cultural capital. Direct exposure to the arts does not appear to improve students' chances of going to an "elite" college, though having parents interested in the arts does. These findings generally hold for both girls and boys, with several important exceptions: Contrary to the expectation that girls should benefit most from activities that are stereotypically female, and vice-versa, we actually find the opposite in some cases. At the elite college level, for example, participation in yearbook/school newspaper appears to benefit boys but not girls, though more girls report participating in this activity than boys. Thus, it may be that elite colleges do not simply seek students with high cultural capital but those who stand out, defy expectations, or are otherwise unique among their peers. On the other hand, we find little reason to believe that students can actually be taught or trained in the types of cultural competence valued by elite college admissions offices. IS - 2 JF - Poetics EP - 168 TI - Cultural capital and the extracurricular activities of girls and boys in the college attainment process VL - 32 T2 - Gender, networks, and cultural capital SP - 145 KW - admissions KW - college KW - college-choice AU - Kaufman, Jason AU - Gabler, Jay PY - 2004/04// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2004.02.001 ER -