ABSTRACT
The specific role of the sociology of education is to study the relations between cultural reproduction and social reproduction. This occurs when it endeavors to determine the contribution made by the educational system to the reproduction of the structure of power relationships and symbolic relationships between classes. British studies show that whilst Asians perform well after social class controls, youth of West Indian background do not perform as well as the majority white population. Intriguingly the sole exceptions were those of Finnish, Norwegian and Danish parentage, groups which had come from just across the border. Social history is replete with examples concerning certain religious minorities as well as certain immigrant groups who in the space of two to three generations have risen from humble beginnings to a preponderance in middle-class professions. Finally, a thorough statistical study of the Netherlands found that "the influence of cultural resources, which was small before 1950, became even smaller after 1950."
