This exploratory study critically examines the relation between the commonly applied social contextual variables and the assimilation of the concepts of historical time. Using new data, from a classroom-based research study of 120 nine-to ten-year-olds, it contends that extant researchers' application and investigation of the social context of learning have been inadequate. This inadequacy, it is argued, is born of the failure of previous researchers to examine the combined effects of intrinsic and extrinsic social factors that act upon a child's learning. This study contends that a metric which combines the internal and external factors is needed. The final component of this study examines a new social contextual metric of historical cultural capital and analyses its effectiveness as a performance determinant in primary History.