In many European countries, school students of working-class origin, those with certain migration backgrounds and boys perform worse than others in school. Main objective of this presentation is to introduce, theorise and empirically explore two concepts that contribute to such disadvantages of risk groups in the educational system relating to students’ orientations towards education, learning and the social school environment. Analysing these phenomena is the task of the international multidisciplinary and mixed-method project SASAL – School Alienation in Switzerland and Luxembourg (principal investigators: Tina Hascher, University of Bern/CH and Andreas Hadjar, University of Luxembourg/LU) that started in 2015.

            School alienation is conceptualised as an orientation towards school. Previous studies highlight a low commitment to school, a low identification with and an emotional detachment from school and learning as features of school alienation (Finn, 1989; Hascher & Hagenauer, 2010; Hadjar et al., 2015). School alienation expresses a lack of bonding to school, a negative attitude and a sense of meaninglessness towards the social and the academic aspects of schooling (classmates, teachers, learning). From a more sociological perspective, values of schooling are conceptualised in terms of generalised attitudes towards education along the instrumental goals to achieve well-being formulated in Lindenbergs’ Social Production Function Theory (Ormel et al., 1999). Considering the general theory on educational inequalities of Boudon (1974), both school alienation and values of schooling appear as resources with an impact on primary effects (achievement) and secondary effects (educational decisions). They are part of what Bourdieu (1986) refers to as incorporated cultural capital.

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