ABSTRACT
This chapter will first introduce the capital approach based on Bourdieu's social reproduction theory in educational research, followed by a review of the studies relating to Chinese rural students' access to Chinese elite universities and their parents' positive roles. Based on these, I will discuss the social structure and human agency debate in social theory. I will justify my argument that Bourdieu's social reproduction stance in educational research weakens his efforts to mediate the impasse between social structure and human agency. I will then introduce discussions on the dialectical relationships between social structure and human agency, where the culture as a social structure has been taken into consideration.
