The Educational Achievement of Brazilian Adolescents: Cultural Capital and the Interaction between Families and Schools

Most studies find a positive correlation between family cultural capital and educational achievement. As compelling as the evidence on the advantages of family cultural capital for educational achievement is, most studies have focused on countries characterized by having a large middle class and high levels of income, not addressing societies with high levels of social inequality. Importantly, few studies have examined whether schools interact with families in determining the relationship between cultural capital and educational achievement. The goal of this article is to examine how cultural capital is associated with achievement in Brazil, one of the most unequal countries in the world. Using data from the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), results from multilevel models show that the science and reading achievement gaps associated with cultural capital are magnified in Brazilian schools, an important finding given that the country is an already highly stratified society.