The Actively Present and Dutiful Individual: An Empirical Study of the Familial Cultural Capital of Rural Students

Abstract Existing studies have found that the starting point for class divisions is the family: while schools play a interrupting role, it is passive compared to the roles of the family and children themselves. It is therefore taken for granted when rural students are screened out by school education or fail to test into good universities. If the unexpected occurs, it merely represents a fluke, or the result of individual striving. This paper draws on qualitative research in finding that familial cultural capital plays a unique and positive role in the process of rural children testing into key universities, and that their success is not entirely the result of individual striving. It is particularly worth noting that the concept of “dutifulness” emphasized in rural families is consistent with the mainstream ideology of school education. These individuals therefore exhibit an “actively present” state in education, ultimately achieving academic success.