Education and Marxism Flashcards
1
Q
What is Marxism?
A
- System of capitalism is unfair as it exploits
- Economic base is the foundation of a capitalist society
- Bourgeoisie own the means of production
- Proletariat own the modes of production
- In order for capitalism to work, people cannot realise they are being exploited (false class consciousness)
- In terms of educational theory - Func. and Marx. generally agree on what is happening but they argue it happens for different reasons
2
Q
2020 Social Mobility Report statistics
A
- Poverty - 600,000 more children are now living in poverty than in 2012
- Employment - half of all adults from the poorest background receive no training at all after learning in school
- Schools - at 16, 24.7% of disadvantaged students get a good pass in Maths and English GCSE compared to 49.9% of other students
- In 2019, people from working class backgrounds in professional jobs earned about £6,000 less than their more privileged counterparts in professional jobs
Inequality is entrenched ‘from birth to work’ - little progress had been made on improving the situation since 2014
3
Q
Louis Althusser (1972) - The reproduction of Labour Power
A
Ruling class maintain control over the working class in two ways:
- Ideological State Apparatus - media, culture, religion, education (ISA)
- Repressive State Apparatus - police and army (RSA)
Education is an ISA that promotes ruling class values and is an institution that spread the bourgeois ideology. This means that education justifies and reproduces class inequality by creating false class consciousness.
4
Q
Althusser - Reproduction
A
- Education reproduces class inequality, by failing each generation of working class pupils in turn and thereby ensuring they end up in the same kind of jobs as their parents
- How this happens in schools - only focusing on over-achieving students in educational triage, setting and examination, middle class language being used in schools, teaches to follow rules and hierarchy with no question
- This means that our society does not really change - middle-class students get the test grades and then the best jobs; consequently this props up and reproduces capitalism
- This is useful in helping us understand the role of education as it shows us why meritocracy is a myth and that advancement is not just about skills and talent
5
Q
Althusser - Legitimation
A
- Education justifies class inequality by producing ideologies that disguise its true cause - education tries to convince people that inequality is inevitable and that failure is the fault of the individual, not the capitalist system
- How this happens in schools - meritocracy; if you fail it is your fault, not the fault of the system or your background
- This means that we think of education and society as fair as it is the fault of individuals, not the system; therefore, we do not question or challenge how society works and we pass it onto children
- This is useful because it allows us to see that just because something exists doesn’t mean it is in the interests of those involved
6
Q
Bowles and Gintis
A
- Came up with ‘correspondence theory’ - the idea of a correspondence between education and schools, with both involving uniforms, time-keeping, hierarchy, rewards etc
- This is argued to prepare pupils for life in a capitalist system and prevents the rebellion or revolution and the reason schools act in that way is because they work directly in the interests of a capitalist system and the ruling class
- Principle purpose is to reproduce capitalism - ‘work casts a long shadow over school’
- Functionalists would agree with this, but they see it as positive - MARXISTS THINK IT IS NEGATIVE; Func. do not see the workplace and employer-employee relationship as a fundamental conflict like Marx. do
7
Q
Aspects of education and their reproduction in the workplace
A
- Hierarchy (headteacher = boss etc)
- Rewards and Sanctions (detention = firing, house points = raises or promotions)
- Passive and docile - complacency, do the work without complaint, respond to authority correctly
- Motivation - extrinsic reward is the aim, not the love of learning (reward is the aim, not the love of working; Marxists think that we should do work we love, not just for money) - exams and wages
- Uniform - similarity and solidarity
- Fragmentation - (taught in subjects without links = people have specific jobs, only bosses know the whole process) - prevents the overthrowing of the upper class by having the same ability
8
Q
Evaluation of Correspondence Theory
A
- B & G conducted research in 1976 - findings may not be applicable to the modern workplace, which has evolved massively, or vice versa may not apply fully to the modern school system (students learn democracy and how to complain to make improvements) - marxists assume this was unwanted in capitalism
- Education may no longer prepare students for the workplace
- If education prepares students for work, then why do we have work based training programmes and apprenticeships
- Ignore factors such as gender and ethnicity
- Too deterministic (not every student passively accepts the rules, regulations and ideology that the education system passes on; schools can be a site of ‘ideological struggle’ - Giroux)
- Simplistic in its outlook
- Education is not actively shaped by the economy
9
Q
Correspondence Theory - Bowles and Gintis 2
A
- They studied 273 students in an American high school
- There stated there is a “long shadow of work”
- “Correspondence principle” - schools mirror the workplace
- They identified a link between behaviour and personality traits
- The role of education is to reproduce the right workforce for capitalism
- Hidden curriculum is key to making this happen
10
Q
What are Fordist and Post-Fordist systems?
A
Capitalist idea
- Fordist production systems, named after Ford Motor Company who first used it, is a system that requires low-skilled workers to conduct alienating work in a mass production assembly line; the education system prepares pupils to accept this work according to B + G.
- However, postmodernists argue society is more diverse and fragmented, so social class is not as important and as a result production is customised for small specialist markets which require skilled, adaptable workforces able to use advanced technology
11
Q
What education system does post-fordism call for?
A
- It calls for one that focuses on self-motivation and creativity, which must provide lifelong retraining, because rapid technological change makes existing skills obsolete. They therefore argue education has become more diverse and responsive to the needs of individuals; correspondence no longer operates according to postmodernists, who argue that education reproduces diversity rather than inequality.
12
Q
What education system does Fordism call for?
A
- More skills and training were required before Fordism, whereas after low skilled workers were able to learn new roles quickly as the broken down steps in the assembly line were easy to learn and so they could work effectively without years of knowledge and training.
- Unions were banned to prevent the assembly line stopping or slowing down from constant communication that may go against the system they work for - the workers were isolated individuals on isolated jobs, and although the end result was collaborative the assembly line was not. It prevented revolution against the harsh conditions of the job, both mentally and physically, which may lead to a breakdown in the assembly line and meant production targets could be met. It prevented trouble being caused.
- The workers would generally need less education as the jobs required less skill and knowledge - workers were also receiving better pay due to the boom in profits from the production line efficiency, and so they did not have any desire or drive to pursue higher education when they could achieve well paying jobs with simple qualifications. Furthermore, 70% of workers were immigrants, and so only language based education was needed
13
Q
What education system Fordism would benefit from cont.
A
Fordist production would greatly benefit from an education system that follows the correspondence principle proposed by Marxists Bowles and Gintis.
- This is because it would prepare the workers for the workplace in which they have to be subservient to the needs of the boss and the targets of production through normalisation and socialisation into responding positively to authority and hierarchy which is present in schools through head teacher-teacher-student systems; this is mimicked in the Fordist workplace with a factory owner-department manager-worker system
- Furthermore, they would benefit from the structures of reward, sanctions and motivation that is encouraged within schools through house points systems, detentions and exam results that would encourage these principles.
- This would be key to a Fordist workforce where the reward is good pay due to the high profits, sanctions are losing a job and motivation is to not face the sanctions for a lack of hard work
- The Fordist production process also employs a system of meritocracy, another correspondence between the school and workplace according to Bowles and Gintis, where hard work and talent results in high reward, much how education systems that correspond to the workplace encourage and socialise students into working hard to get the best results
- Finally, the fragmentation of the assembly line in Fordist production would benefit from the fragmentation present in a correspondence education system, where workers, much like students, are taught divided information and no synoptic links that may allow them to gain insight into the whole process and therefore have the ability to revolt and overtake those who run the systems e.g. the Proletariat becoming truly class conscious and overthrowing the Bourgeoisie
- The education system does not need to teach skills, but simply socialise and prepare students to accept the low skilled work they offered in Fordist production.
14
Q
Criticisms of Correspondence Theory - Bowles and Gintis (expanded)
A
- Some criticisms of this theory is the idea of how the workplace has changed, for example how postmodernists view the workplace as now being formed of small specially skilled markets, that require an adaptable and hard-working, high-skilled workforce, rather than the the obedient and low skilled workers of the Fordist era.
- They argue that the workplace now follows a post-Fordist system, and so the correspondence theory can no longer link the education system and workplace together.
- Along with the workplace no longer being the same as they were when Bowles and Gintis established correspondence theory, the education system has also changed - fragmentation arguably no longer applies, as students are taught synoptic links and encouraged to criticise and apply their knowledge to all areas of life, as well as being encouraged with intrinsic motivation of studying what they love as opposed to studying what they need to gain extrinsic reward of money in the future amongst other similar ambitions.
- As a result, modern societal systems no longer fit into the ideas of the correspondence theory, which weakens the applicability of the theory to explain the purpose of education.
- Another criticism of this theory is the ideas that it presents; a myth of meritocracy interferes with some of the ideas of correspondence, such as how hard work creates more success, and this can contrast and limit the explanations of the theory.
15
Q
The role of education according to Bowles and Gintis
A
- Hierarchies (headteacher, teachers, students)
Hierarchies exist in the workplace with CEOs, directors, bosses, managers and shop floor workers. These roles reinforce obedience and compliance helping to maintain the capitalist structure. - Students are motivated by external rewards - exams
Workers are motivated by wages and the desire to be paid for good work - Students rewarded for subservient behaviour
Workers are provided with pay raises and praise for completing the jobs they are instructed to do - Students need to be wearing correct uniform
Dress codes and codes of conduct within the workplace - Students compete against each other in exam settings
Compete for promotion and better jobs - or to even get a job - Fragmentation - knowledge is broken up into separate subjects
Only trained to do their specific job, and the education streamlining means people have an area of expertise.
- According to Marxist theory, fragmentation creates alienation ‘cut off from, unable to find satisfaction from’
