How Socioeconomic Inequality Affects Children’s Education Across the Global Societies

Socioeconomic inequalities in children’s education and achievement during childhood through adolescence are pervasive across the global societies, including Bangladesh. Despite this, we have little knowledge on how socioeconomic inequalities perpetuate and transmit disparities in children’s education. Drawing from a structural theory of social inequality and its transmission model of family investment, this chapter systematically reviews relevant literature on comprehensive aspects of parental capital investments such as economic capital, human capital, social capital, cultural capital, emotional capital, and time capital underlying mechanisms by which socioeconomic inequalities transmit disparities in children’s educational achievement across the global societies, including Bangladesh. The systematic literature review suggests that unequal distribution of socioeconomic resources at the community or societal level shapes parents’ differential economic, human, social, cultural, and time capital or resources. Children’s unequal access in parents’ economic, human, social, time and cultural capital is underlying mechanism through which socioeconomic inequalities transmit disparities in their school achievement over time. Finally, directions for future research and policy implications are discussed to reduce socioeconomic disparities in children’s education.