The influence of social background in education has been demonstrated over and over again, despite major political efforts and decades of educational reforms. In Sweden for example, an overview revealed that the negative impact of social background, which had decreased slowly over a long period, started to increase as a consequence of the economic crises and cuts in the educational budget in the beginning of 1990’s (Broady et al. 2000).

Students’ social background is one of the most influential factors at play in any educational setting. There is a need to deepen our understanding of this “mechanism” in order to more successfully address the issue of ‘social determinism’ in the classroom. Why is it that, on a group level, students’ social background as well as their parents’ education and occupation, has such a powerful impact on their choices and achievements at school? Ekerwald (1983) addressed this question in a meta-study, and found that the parents’ working conditions are crucial. The rules and routines at the workplace literally affects the rules, routines, attitudes and expectations at home and in that way influence the childrens’ upbringing and the ordinary life of the family. 

Bourdieu (1977) devoted his research to exploring how social reproduction takes place. By observing traditional upbringing in Algeria, he concluded that “the rules and phrases that the children hear all the time /…/ which by being continuously repeated and demonstrated in action, goes to the foundation of the child’s behaviour and thinking” (Broady 1991, p. 234, with reference to Bourdieu 1958, author’s own translation). As a result of large-scale quantitative studies combined with small-scale qualitative studies Bourdieu created a conceptual framework to explain the elements of social reproduction. One of the central concepts, besides Field and Forms of Capital (Bourdieu, 1986), is Habitus (Bourdieu 1990). It is described as “located in traditions and lifestyle, and internalised in the mind, but also /…/ inscribed in the body where it expresses itself in the way we move and carry ourselves.” (Österlind 2008, p. 73). Habitus is described as very resistant to change (Callewaert, 1992).

 A similar problem of inertia has been addressed within an educational framework by Marton who found that several years of higher education did not necessarily affect the student’s thinking about a subject matter, and concluded that the everyday thinking often overrides what has been taught at university. Marton developed Phenomenography, a research tradition designed to describe the variation in how people perceive and conceptualize or experience a given phenomenon, in order to learn more about and be able to adjust the teaching according to the students’ initial understanding of a certain content. (Marton, 1981, 1986, 1994). Phenomenography is a reliable way to describe the complexity and differences in peoples’ ways of experiencing or approaching a specific phenomenon. The aim is not to classify individuals, although this is possible and has been done, even in relation to social background (Marton & Wenestam, 1984). 

Can habitus be traced by phenomenography?

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