Cultural capital either fits into the cultural capital one already has in one's habitus or if the cultural capital is disparate to the cultural capital one already has the new cultural capital can change one's habitus. .
Habitus, Cultural capital and Education systems.
For Bourdieu, schools are not as much sites of distribution of cultural capital, but sites of valorisation and legitimation of the cultural capital of the middle and upper classes, which is reified and rewarded. In developing the concept of cultural capital, Bourdieu explicitly argues that the educational systems propagate the illusion that a cultured habitus results either from intrinsic ability of the student or the teachers effort. Moreover, Bourdieu states that educational systems reproduces social structure and enhances social dichotomies by holding to the motto that all cultural capital is equal, but upper class cultural capital is more equal. .
In mass public schooling, such as that currently operating in New Zealand, the school represents what Bourdieu calls a "social field" within which all children must operate, some being better equipped than others. By school age, a child's habitus is already highly developed. The "social field" of the school will also have its own "habitus" of sorts, as seen in its values, beliefs and aspirations usually representational of the dominate group in society. The academic encounter of teacher and student is not simply an encounter of two individual histories but an encounter of two habituses involving four histories, two individual and two collective. The encounter entails habituses having different positions in a "field", they are two embodied histories meeting in a specialized environment, the school, which itself is objectified history. .
Matching of teacher/student habitus.
Teacher habitus and student habitus may be matched or mismatched. If the Teachers habitus and the students habitus is matched then the transition from home life to school life is usually relatively unproblematic.
