social reproduction

Meaning: Social reproduction is how existing social structure, especially class inequality, is maintained across generations. Families and institutions, schools in particular, transmit advantages and disadvantages. Pierre Bourdieu tied it to cultural capital (language, tastes, knowledge, credentials) and social capital (useful networks). Children from higher-status families tend to inherit these, and schools often reward them, so those children are more likely to end up in high-status positions. Conflict theorists use the idea to argue that education tends to preserve the dominant class's position rather than equalize opportunity.

On the MCAT: A passage may describe wealthy children attending well-funded schools, getting tutoring, and entering their parents' professions, while low-income students are tracked into lower-level courses. You name the process, connect it to cultural capital, the hidden curriculum, tracking, or low social mobility, and pick the conflict-theory reading. Other questions ask which change would weaken reproduction (equal school funding, scholarships) or what correlation you would expect between parents' and children's education or income.

Common confusion: Students mix it up with social mobility. They work in opposite directions: strong social reproduction means low intergenerational mobility. It is also a tendency, not a guarantee, because some people do change class. Functionalists describe education as sorting people by merit, while the reproduction account stresses inherited advantage.