Cultural Capital and Academic Achievement: The Role of Family and Social Backgrounds in Shaping Academic Performance among Banaras Hindu University (BHU) Students.

ABSTRACT: This qualitative research explores the role of cultural capital in determining the academic success of the Social Science, Arts and Commerce undergraduate students at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), India. Based on Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical framework, it examines the way students' social background and institutional conventions intersect to produce diverse academic engagement. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 36 purposively selected students and thematic coding was used for data analysis. The results depict a stream-wise variation in the nature of dispositions within the access to cultural capital and the conversion of cultural capital, such that the students of Social Science are more confident about their academic work, more active in the class, and more recognised by the institution as compared to Arts and Commerce. Education in English and linguistic cultural capital are institutions of privilege which are unevenly allocated among the streams, accompanied by first-generation learners in Arts and Commerce. It underscores the differential and selective recognition of students at the institutional level where dominance favouritism in linguistic styles and familiarity with institutional norms is rewarded. Although the students do mobilise to try to obtain cultural capital in a variety of ways, family background, language and previous education still predominate as determinants of academic life. It contends that success in the field of education is impacted by socially passed resources and advocates for institutional reflexivity and pedagogical reorientation to recognise pan-cultural particulars and to facilitate inclusive learning environments. The results add to the literature on cultural capital in India and dialogue with methodological discussions on the representation of qualitative findings. Keywords: academic achievement, cultural capital, higher education, parental education, social inequalities, educational credentials, family backgrounds.