What Being “Well Educated” Means

As many sociologists have noted, vast changes to family mores have occurred since the 1970s. Today, these changes relate primarily to the simultaneous emergence of a new family structure (a “relational” family based on strong emotionality where each partner has a high degree of autonomy) and of a new educational model (based on more flexible authority, which is negotiated between parents and children). Due to their unequal spread in society, these transformations can lead to misunderstandings in daily meetings between professionals from various educational institutions and working-class families with low cultural capital. Based on various empirical data (qualitative interviews, analysis of records), this paper attempts to shed light on these misunderstandings and to explain how they are structured by the social positions of the actors involved.