The effects of schools providing compensatory cultural capital on student reading in the case of Taiwanese students participating in PISA

Abstract

The structural approach of cultural capital theories neglects the idea that the impact of structural constraints on educational results can be reduced by agency. This predicament can be solved when the advantages of abundant educational resources available in schools are unpacked, since doing so can compensate for the paucity of such resources often seen in the low-socioeconomic status (SES) family social space. Although the gains available from such resources remain embedded in the school social space, it can be assumed that their compensatory function can be activated through reading activities that contribute significantly to students' cognitive development. This situation prompts two research questions related to the contributions of reading to academic disciplines such as mathematics and science, and the amelioration of the structural impact of SES and cultural capital on low-SES students' learning outcomes. To explore these questions, we used regression analysis and hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) to analyse data from the stratified random sample of Taiwanese students (n = 7342) contained in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 dataset. The estimates of regression analysis showed that reading ability functioned as a reliable indicator of Taiwanese students' mathematics and science scores on PISA 2018. The results of HLM analysis further demonstrated that the predominant influence of economic, social and cultural status and cultural capital can be attenuated significantly when the independent variables of school support and student personal efforts/learning strategies are considered. Accordingly, reading resources can be regarded as a compensatory genre of cultural capital embedded within the school social space, at least in the case of Taiwan, as the benefits they create need to be achieved through reading plans/projects scientifically implemented by schools.