Schooling and Social Control: Symbolic Violence and Hispanic Students' Attitudes Toward Their Own Ethnic Group

Abstract

The concept of "symbolic violence" is explored in terms of Hispanic students' attitudes toward their own ethnicity. Mecha nisms of symbolic violence within the school are specified in terms of their role in differentiating and ranking students in terms of their knowledge of the "cultural arbitrary." The differentiating and ranking (D/R) mechanisms operationalized for the analysis are levels of norm-referenced testing, grouping, competition, and busing differences. The analysis is based on an analytic sample of 10 elementary schools and 118 male and female His panic students. The dependent variables are the level of ethnic salience and attitudes toward own ethnicity. The school scores on the four D/R factors that were assigned to individuals, and correlational and regression analysis was performed. Findings indicated that the D/R factors are mechanisms of symbolic violence. Differences were found between males and females and between the dependent variables.

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