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’
16
Q
What do schools reproduce according to Althusser?
A
Labour power - the workforce needed for capitalism to continue to function
17
Q
‘A false and distorted picture which makes society seem reasonable and disguises exploitation’
A
False class consciousness
18
Q
All Marxists agree
A
- Capitalism relies on and cannot function without a workforce that are willing to accept exploitation
- Education reproduces and legitimises class inequality - ensures that working class students get working class jobs
- However - B&G say schools indoctrinate the norms of the myth of meritocracy, but pupils can resist according to the work of Paul Willis
19
Q
What is the role of education according to Willis?
A
- He was a neo-Marxist (new Marxist) - explored how schooling served capitalism (combined interactionism and structuralism)
- He combined interactionist approaches focusing on the meanings people give to their situations and how this can help them to resist indoctrination
20
Q
The Work of Paul Willis - Research Methods
A
- Studied 12 working class boys from a small industrial town in England who lived on a working class estate
- Followed them in their last 18 months of school and first few months of work
- He used observations and participant observation in class, around school and during leisure activities
- He recorded group discussions, held informal interviews and kept diaries
- These are not usually Marxist methods
21
Q
What is Counter-school culture? - Willis
A
- The 12 boys formed a friend group known as the ‘lads;, and had an opposite attitude to the values proposed by their school
- They felt superior to teachers and conformist students (ear ‘oles)
- Attached virtually no value to academic attainment or work
- No interest in qualifications
- Having a ‘laff’ was prioritised over work
- Resented school trying to take control and they tried to take ‘symbolic and physical space from the institution and its rules’
- School was boring for them, they were eager to leave and enter the more exciting world
- Were content with having any male, manual labour which they called ‘real work’
- Tried to identify with the adult-male world with smoking and drinking
- Capitalism was failing to reproduce the workers needed for the economy
- They did not accept authority and were not obedient or docile
- However, they were still prepared for their work as their rejection of academia made them suitable for the low / semi-skilled manual work
22
Q
What is ‘working class masculinity’?
A
- ‘Lads’ saw their future work as tough, hard and manly - manual work is masculine
- Mental work is believed to be effeminate, or ‘sissy’
- Construction of masculinity is offensive and defensive,, giving power to resistance and superiority over those the school deemed to be successful and self-respecting and over teachers who saw them as failures
23
Q
What were the similarities between school and work?
A
- There was a ‘shop-floor’ culture in the workplace that heavily reflected the CSC in schools
- Both environments saw the lads have a lack of respect for authority, and emphasis on masculinity, an appreciation for the worth of manual labour, and priority on having a ‘laff’
- They also sought maximum possible freedom, and tried to control the pace they worked at to win time and space away from the tedium and boredom of work which made life more tolerable
- However, they never directly challenged authority and always completed their work
24
Q
What did Willis conclude?
A
He therefore concluded that the lads were not persuaded to act as they did because of school or forced to seek manual labour, but instead they actively create their own subcultures which leads them into manual jobs. As a result, they learn shop-floor culture from male role models in the community and they see school and its values as irrelevant to their chosen work.
Because of this, they created their own exploitation by going into the jobs capitalism required of them by reproducing the working class, despite the agency they had and their active rejection of capitalism’s indoctrination and education.
25
How does CSC support capitalism?
- The workers create their own exploitation
- They do see through capitalism, and their insight into the world of capitalism are called 'penetrations'
- The lads believed any qualifications they achieved would be unlikely to affect their choice of work or chance of social mobility (which as low regardless) and so they see investing time, emotion and energy into school work as worthless
- Despite these 'partial penetrations' into the nature of capitalism, school still had an impact on preparing them for their manual work
- The CSC knows meritocracy is an illusion and that the majority of the WC lads will remain at the bottom of the class system, and so it directs them into low-skill employment
- They condemn themselves to a precise insertion into a system of 'exploitation and oppression or working class people'
26
Evaluation of Willis - Strengths
- His theories about working class masculinity and resistance to schools are still incredibly relevant today due to our deindustrialised Western society which has led to a disappearance of manual jobs and therefore uncertainty over job roles and because of how exam-driven, competitive and pressured the modern school system is.
- Provides a framework with which to study and understand the relationship between class, gender, schooling and the economy - Liz Gordon (1984) observed how his work gave a model for subsequent culture studies investigating education
- Looked at the construction of meaning by showing the ‘lads’ definition of the situation has logic and sense in regards to their class situation, culture and gender as well as the social, economic and employment context of 1977.
- His findings are reliable - a further study of working class men in South Wales conducted by Ward (2015) showed that in several aspects, working class men had remained the same despite the disappearance of traditional WC jobs.
- Another strength - his research has application to contemporary society, as their is anti-school subculture within contemporary education, crisis over the achievement of working class males and an issue with labelling given to WC men.
27
Evaluation of Willis - Weaknesses
- As he only studied them in their final year, the impacts of their previous school experience are unknown, and so choosing to fail may be a defense mechanism developed from negative labelling as an act of self-preservation
- Working class boys did end up in working class jobs, thus proving the ideas proposed by Bowles and Gintis; a counter to this point is that Willis proved his theory that the boys still had agency and refused capitalist indoctrination despite still having the same result.
- Willis had an inadequate sample for generalising his results to the rest of the working class’ education to education - he only used 12 students, who were all male, and atypical students at the school he studied, as well as being working class students of the whole population.
- Accused of largely ignoring the existence of various subcultures in school, pointing out that many students came somewhere between conformist and being totally committed to counter-school culture.
- There are questions about the relevance of the study to modern education due to our de-industrialised society where the manual jobs he studied are disappearing - there are arguably not the same working-class pipelines that serve capitalism as there once were
- The study’s methodology had the potential to cause the ‘Hawthorne Effect’; the lads may have acted up in the presence of Willis to gain peer status, and Willis could have potentially romanticised his findings, affecting objectivity.
28
Cultural capital - Bourdieu
Cultural Capital - Pierre Bourdieu (Marxist)
- A person's education (knowledge and intellectual skills) that provide advantage
- Bourdieu identified that the main function of education was social reproduction - the reproduction of social inequality from one generation to the next, in particular the power and privilege of the dominant classes
- Capital - main resources which determine people's position in society; the greater amount of capital an individual or group possesses, the higher their position in the class system
- Each form of capital contributes to success in the education system, with cultural capital being the most influential
29
What are the main forms of capital Bourdieu identified?
Economic capital -
- Financial resources such as income and wealth, and can be used to further educational success by investing in private education, tutors, or moving to the catchment area of a prestigious state school
Social capital -
- Refers to the network of family, friends and acquaintances - social contacts are the resource, as having people to provide advice on best schools and universities, jobs and appropriate training is invaluable to success
Symbolic capital -
- Honour, prestige and reputation; symbolic capital is high in the nobility and those who have received titles, and families with high symbolic capital can raise the expectations and boost the confidence of their children, creating educational success
Cultural capital -
- Manners, tastes, interests and language, including 'high culture' like ballet, opera and visual art
- It is the culture of the dominant classes and according to B, it is a resource because the more CC an individual has, the more likely they are to achieve in the education system and enjoy the rewards
30
What are conversions?
This refers to the idea of the various capitals reinforcing and increasing one another, with this interaction causing conversion.
e.g. the ability to pay for private education can increase social capital etc
31
Cultural capital and education
Bourdieu claims that CC is key to high educational attainment as it is concentrated in the dominant classes
- B also claims educational success depends on the culture learned in the early years, as it is the culture taught in schools (dominant classes teach their culture)
- As a result, children of the dominant classes have an advantage when they begin school, and this continues throughout their educational career
32
Social reproduction
B argues all of the capitals interacting with education creates social reproduction and educational success legitimates this
- It makes it appear just, right and deserved, and this so-called talent and ability which are seen to reproduce educational success are basically the investment of cultural capital
- This process is hidden and safeguarded as the transmission of cultural capital within the family escapes observation and control
- This helps to maintain social reproduction and the invisibility of cultural capital largely prevents any criticism and challenge to the advantages it brings
33
Evaluating Bourdieu - Strengths
- Extremely influential - have stimulated a large body research
- His work provided a framework for the study of education which has been used by many prominent British sociologists
- His ideas have also formed the basis of recent studies into class cultures and the British class structure (he did work in 2016)
- He has helped us to fully understand the interactions between upbringing and the education system, and how inequality is legitimised, emphasised and reproduced by the education system; we understand how the proletariat are isolated from social mobility and how different areas of inequality contribute to educational attainment - it is a more extensive theory than other Marxist theory, by examining things that interact with economy and contribute to class inequality
34
Evaluating Bourdieu - Weaknesses
- His critics claim that he has presented an overly rigid societal structure which constrains behaviour and structures action, and so there is little room for creativity or resistance - people are viewed as creatures of the social system
- Marxists argue he neglects the influence of the economy and places too much emphasis on cultural capital and not enough on economic oppression
- His description of cultural capital lacks precision and detail, and he has failed to spell out how cultural capital is converted into educational qualifications
