Inequalities in schooling and class strategies: capital, information, and educational longevity in Brazil

Abstract

Building a long-lasting and successful educational trajectory requires the adoption of different strategies. Grounded in Bourdieu’s sociology of education, this text focuses on the strategies adopted by different class fractions to construct this trajectory.  Based on an interpretive review of the sociological literature, the objective was to analyze how elites, middle-class fractions, and working-class fractions mobilize distinct amounts and compositions of economic, cultural, and social capital in structuring their educational trajectories. It was concluded that the concentration and capacity to mobilize and convert different forms of capital produce different pathways and effects for class fractions. Information stands out as a central analytical asset in converting resources into concrete educational advantages, guiding asymmetrical strategies for access, retention, and success. While elites and middle-class fractions engage in educational overinvestment and anticipatory practices aimed at social reproduction and distinction, even promoting opportunities for internationalization along their educational trajectories, lower-income groups engage in a pragmatic and gradual “schoolwork,” anchored in teacher mediation and the calculation of chances based on students’ prior performance. The analyses also showed that, even after the recent expansion of the educational market, inequalities persist, reshaping the competition for prestigious institutions and distinctive credentials, and reconfiguring the mechanisms that reproduce these inequalities.