This paper is based on Pierre Bourdieu's theory (1930-2002) about the relationship between social reproduction and cultural reproduction. A relatively straightforward implication of Bourdieu's theory is that, considering the educational system as a whole, students' sucess in school evaluations must be related to the original position in the structure of the student of class relations (determined by the amount of cultural and economical capital available in the student's family). However, more than predicting statistical association between social origin and school performance variables, Bourdieu's sociology enables one to theorize on the reasons of students' performance. Hence, aiming at evaluating and exploring the theoretical productivity of Bourdieu's sociology of education in one of the relevant contexts of science education, we performed a statistical analysis of the number of higher and lower grades accumulated in basic physics' evaluations concerning socio-economic data of 1007 undergraduate students in physics in a Brazilian federal university. In particular, we considered the variables "income", "father's education" and "mother's education." Amid these, the first two variables proved to be related to academic success and failure in basic physics. Implications are considered under Bourdieu's sociology.
Pierre Bourdieu. Higher Education. Physics; Students' Achievement.