Kulturní kapitál a maturitní zkouška: analýza školních seznamů literárních děl
Cultural Capital and Maturita Exam: Analysis of School List of Literary Works

Summary/Abstract: Study focuses on ways how education system consecrates particular literary works as pieces of the legitimate culture. It also pays attention to the correspondence between leaving examination syllabus and position of schools in the field of upper secondary education. The study employs data connected to the state leaving examination to explore less apparent mechanisms of reproduction of cultural capital and its unequal distribution in the educational system. The original data file includes ‘school list of literary works’ gathered from 831 secondary schools, encompassing 82 722 individual items (works). Empirical analysis shows the narrow delineation of the literary canon. Half of the unique items in the whole file comprises only 80 most frequent works. There is also profound between-school differentiation in the lists. Schools belonging to the upper segment of the cultural capital scale often include pieces of modern literature and theatre. On the other hand, lower segment schools often include literary works characterised by straightforward narrative form. The analysis shows that differences between maturita exam school list further entrench the distinction between academic and vocational educational tracks.

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