Achievement Inequality in the United Arab Emirates: A Study of Bourdieusian Habitus and Capital

This study investigates how students’ cultural capital, social capital, and nationality relate to academic achievement in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). As a relatively young and culturally diverse country, the UAE has experienced rapid expansion in its education system. Despite this growth, there is a lack of research on the social and cultural factors affecting academic performance in the region. This study utilizes Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of habitus (a dynamic set of dispositions crucial for acquiring and interpreting capital) to examine these factors.

Employing a mixed-methods approach, the study finds that certain nationalities within the UAE underperform relative to others, specifically Emirati students who tend to have lower attainment scores than their expatriate counterparts. These findings could have significant implications for the Emiratization initiative and UAE society. Additionally, the study reveals that both cultural and social capital positively influence academic achievement, which may exacerbate existing disparities between those with and without access to these forms of capital.

The article extends existing knowledge by shedding light on the social and cultural roots of differences in educational achievement within the UAE. Moreover, it challenges and extends Bourdieu’s theory, originally developed in Western contexts, by applying it to a different cultural and educational setting.