Browsing by Author "Kaasalainen, Emilia"

The aim of this qualitative thesis was to examine what kind of meanings individuals from different educational and socio-economic backgrounds are giving to their educational options and how much unequally distributed capital resources, such as social status, cultural capital and class-related reasons, affect educational choices. The research is based on Bourdieu’s theory of forms of capital, which is examined through previous studies and literature. The study was carried out as a case study, interviewing four different people whose educational paths were different. Every person was interviewed separately. The produced material was analyzed by using discourse analysis and content analysis techniques. Individuals from different socio-economic backgrounds set different meanings for their edu-cation. Three distinct, often repeated, meanings were found in education: income and appreciation, me-talk and unlimited and limited opportunities. Depending on the individual’s socio-economic background, different meanings became more or less important for options. Interviewees argumentation about the options also revealed possible class-related reasons for the options, which was obvious to someone wasn’t necessarily that to the other. Examining the talk of individuals, some of the effects of cultural capital were also found of options. For the future, for example when discussing equality between educational opportunities, it would be important to remember that our cohesive comprehensive school system may not be able to equalize all the effects of socio-economic backgrounds on learning and studying success and therefore on educational choices. Pupils are and will be in an unequal position whit their educational options as long as the social segregation and inequalities between people continue to grow.