This paper aims to show how Bourdieu’s concept of habitus is not only particularly useful for understanding the mechanisms of social reproduction that act within the field of education, but also for comprehending the margins of intervention that are able to change the destinies of disadvantaged students. If, on the one hand, this durable system of internalized dispositions is affected by class or class-fraction background, on the other, it can be modified through new processes of acculturation and socialization. In this sense, studies on “institutional habitus” ‒ the habitus which is acquired by attending specific schools and higher education institutions ‒ are particularly relevant. Indeed, educational institutions can strengthen the original habitus but also modify it by promoting the transition to higher education and the processes of social mobility for disadvantaged students.
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