CULTURAL CAPITAL AND EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITY IN CROATIA, GERMANY AND DENMARK: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PISA 2009 DATA

Starting from Bourdieu's theory of cultural and social reproduction, the paper seeks to examine the relationship between socioeconomic background, cultural capital and academic achievement in three national educational systems: Croatian, German and Danish. Me analyses are based on PISA 2009 survey data (N(C)=4 994; N(G) =4 979; N(D) =5 924). Regression analyses were performed in order to examine the effects of students ' socioeconomic background on their scientific literacy, the mediation of this relationship by cultural capital, and the effects of cultural capital for students of lower or higher socioeconomic status. The results indicate a positive correlation between students' socioeconomic status and scientific literacy in all three countries, with the correlation strength in German students 'sample being the highest. Cultural capital of students in all three countries mediates the effect of family's socioeconomic status on scientific literacy, although the mediator effects vary significantly between the Croatian, German and Danish students. Interaction effects of socioeconomic status and cultural capital are present in the German and Danish students 'samples, in which educational exclusion occurs primarily through embodied cultural dispositions.