Poverty, Education, and Cultural Wealth in Welsh Schools and Communities

This paper explores community bonds, divisions and the cultural aspirations of young people in Welsh schools. It draws, in particular, on data on how teachers view support given to those in varying extents of poverty, especially focusing on those have with little cultural, parental, school, and community supports. The paper will outline the exclusionary impacts of social and educational measures of poverty, showing how these shape school responses and community resources. Using Yosso's ideas of cultural wealth to examine key themes emerging from the study cultural, i.e. aspirational, navigational, social, linguistic, familial and resistant forms of social and cultural capital, we will highlight the types of support needed for parents, young people and teachers to develop forms of cultural and social capital which might shape stronger resources towards the achievement of individual and community aspiration