education perspectives - marxism

Question 1

What are the three main functions marxists believe education do

Answer 1

reproduces class inequality - middle class children are more likely to succeed in school and go onto middle class jobs rather than working class children

it legitimates class inequality -
through the myth of meritocracy

it works in the interests of the capitalist employers - by socialising children to accept authority hierarchy and wage-labour

Question 2

explain the reproduction of class inequality

Answer 2

class inequalities are carried from one generation to the next

middle class parents use their material and cultural capital to make sure their children get into the best schools and top sets

meaning wealthier pupils tend to get better education and end up in more middle class jobs

working class children are more likely to get a poorer standard of education and end up in working class jobs

class inequality is reproduced

Question 3

explain the legitimation of class inequality

Answer 3

marxists argue that money determines how good of an education you can get

people do not realise this due to the myth of meritocracy

in schools we learn that we all have an equal chance to succeed and that our grades depend on our efforts and ability

if we fail we believe this is our own fault

this legitimates the system because we think it is fair when in reality it is not

this has the effect of controlling the working classes - if children grow up with a belief that they have a fair chance they are less likely to rebel

Question 4

explain how education teaches the skills future capitalist employers need

Answer 4

bowles and gintis - correspondence principle between values learnt at school and the way in which the workplace operates

the values are taught through the hidden curriculum that consist of things that pupils learn through their experience of attending school rather than what they are directly taught

example -
motivation by external rewards (grades not learning) corresponds to being motivated by wages not the joy of the job

acceptance of hierarchy (authority of teachers) corresponds to authority of managers

Question 5

positive evaluations of marxist view on education

Answer 5

a lot of evidence that shows that schools do reproduce class inequality
middle classes do much better in education because working classes are more likely to suffer from cultural and material deprivation
middle classes have more material capital and cultural capital (Reay)
education act of 1988 benefited them (Ball Bowe and Gewirtz)

strong supporting evidene for marxism - existence of private schools
wealthiest 7% of families in UK are able to buy their children a better education which gives them a better chance of getting into top universities

strong evidence for reproduction of class inequality - elite jobs such as medicine and law a lot of those have been privately educated

Question 6

Negative evaluations of Marxist view on education

Answer 6

(Giroux) - the theory is too deterministic and argues that working class pupils are not entirely molded by the capitalist system and do not accept everything that they are taught
(Willis) study of the ‘lads’ also suggests this

less evidence that pupils think school is fair (Willis Lads) knew that the system was biased towards middles classes for example many young people in deprived areas are very aware that they are getting a poor quality of education compared to those in private schools

correspondence principle may not be as applicable today as a lot of employers increasingly require workers to be able to think rather than just be passive robots

Question 7

Marxism -Willis Study

Answer 7

visited a school and observed and interviewed 12 working class rebellious boys about their attitude to school

Willis argues that pupils rebelling are evidence that not all pupils are brainwashed into being passive as a result of the hidden curriculum

Willis therefore criticises marxism as he says pupils arent directly injected with the values and norms that benefit the ruling class and some actively reject them

Question 8

The counter school culture - Willis

Answer 8

Willis described the friendship between these 12 boys a counter school culture

their value system was opposed to the schools

The boys felt superior to the teachers and other pupils
The time they were at school was spent trying to win control over their time and make it their own

Question 9

Attitudes to future work (Willis study)

Answer 9

they looked forward to paid manual work after leaving school and identified all non school activities such as smoking and going out

they believed that manual work was real work and the type of jobs that hard working pupils would get were all the same and generally pointless

their counter school culture was also generally sexist

Question 10

Evaluation of Willis

Answer 10

study does recognise the fact that working class lads are no simply passive victims of a middle class education system and play an active role in resisting it

Study lacks representativeness -
Willis conducted his research with a sample of only 12 white working class boys in just one secondary school
most of the research was built on interviews of just 6

Question 11

Contemporary research for marxism - lockdowns harmed poor kids more than rich kids

Answer 11

According to the sutton trusts 2022 briefing on education recovery and catch up student from lower class backgrounds are much less confident than students from higher that they have caught up with lost learning

Question 12

Bowles and Gintis - the correspondence principle

Answer 12

idea that the norms and values pupils learn in school correspond to the norms and values which will make it easy for future capitalist employers to exploit them at work

Question 13

How does school produce a subservient workforce - Bowles and Gintis correspondence principle

Answer 13

school produces a mass of uncritical passive and docile workers perfectly suited for labour in factories

in a study based on 237 members of the senior year of a New York High School Bowles and Gintis found that the grades awarded related more to personality traits than academic ability

low grades were related to creativity aggressiveness and independence
whilst higher grades were related to perseverance consistency and punctuality

education system was creating an unimaginative and unquestioning workforce through rewarding such traits

Question 14

How do schools encourage acceptance of hierarchy and authority - Bowles and Gintis correspondence principle

Answer 14

schools are hierarchal organisations - pupils have little say over what they learn or how the school day is organised

in day to day life pupils are expected to obey the authority of teachers

Later on in work workers are expected to obey the authority of managers

Question 15

Motivation by external rewards - Bowles and Gintis correspondence principle

Answer 15

pupils are taught to be motivated by the qualifications they will receive at the end of school rather than the ‘joy of learning’

at work workers are motivated by the wage at the end of the month rather than the ‘joy of working’

Question 16

Fragmentation of subjects at school - Bowles and Gintis correspondence principle

Answer 16

learning at school is fragmented into different subjects that last around 45 mins

knowledge is fragmented into different academic subjects rather than being holistic

corresponding to the fragmentation of the workplace - workers will specialise in particular tasks in the office or the factory

fragmentation makes workers easier to control because they are divided which makes it more difficult to unite them and challenge their exploitation conditions

Question 17

Evaluations of Bowles and Gintis Correspondence principle

Answer 17

criticised for viewing students as passive sponges who just soak up the atmosphere of the school without thinking about it

Willis suggested that students were not passive in his study as they demonstrated that they actively rejected school and resisted the authority and formed a counter school culture