ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on some theories and related criticisms, employed by sociologists of higher education, of access and participation with an emphasis on inequality. It provides an overview of the theoretical approaches such as structural functionalism, social conflict theory, stratification theory, status attainment theory, reproduction theory, rational choice theory, and feminist theory. The role of the educational system is to select and allocate individuals for future status in society. In relation to higher education, hierarchical institutional arrangements and related participation and completion rates lend themselves to a conflict theory argument. Ironically, new technological advances such as massive open online courses (MOOCs) are challenging the relationships among formal education, skill acquisition, and credentialing practices. Cultural capital, social capital, and habitus are the active properties of the multi-dimensional space comprised of intersecting fields of the social world and by which individuals or groups are defined by their relative positions in this space.
