Family and School Capital: Interpretive Analyses

Abstract

In this chapter, I present two interpretive investigations I conducted to examine Australian young adults’ perceptions of the importance of families and schools for their educational careers. In the first study, postgraduate students were invited to write a memoir about their educational experiences. In the second investigation, unemployed young adults who were undertaking training courses as part of their mutual obligation to obtain welfare benefits, provided statements about family and school influences. I used the methodology proposed by humanistic sociology to analyze the two sets of memoirs. Such an orientation allows the interactions between opportunity structures and educational outcomes to be explored using individuals’ stories that recall events likely to have been particularly significant and striking in shaping their lives.