Habitus, Capital, and Integration: Understanding Marginalized Women’s Educational Journeys through Tinto and Bourdieu

This paper offers a theoretical exploration of student persistence and inequality in higher education by drawing on Vincent Tinto’s model of student integration and Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of cultural capital, social capital, and habitus. While Tinto emphasizes the processes of academic and social integration as critical determinants of student retention, his framework often assumes institutions as neutral spaces. In contrast, Bourdieu situates educational experiences within broader structures of power, showing how institutions privilege dominant cultural capital and reproduce social hierarchies. By bringing these perspectives into dialogue, the paper argues that student “dropout” or alienation cannot be understood merely as individual failure to integrate, but rather as a systemic outcome shaped by structural inequalities and the unequal distribution of capital. This synthesis highlights how students from marginalized and first-generation backgrounds—particularly in the Indian context—encounter institutional cultures that devalue their identities and dispositions, resulting in a mismatch between habitus and academic expectations. At the same time, the combined framework also illuminates the conditions under which persistence is possible, such as through inclusive pedagogical practices, recognition of diverse forms of capital, and supportive peer and faculty networks. Ultimately, the paper contributes to higher education research by reframing student persistence not simply as a matter of integration, but as a site where inequality and resistance intersect, demanding institutional transformation.