Education - Role of Education- Marxism

Question 1

Althusser

Answer 1

The education system performs two functions for the ideological state apparatus:

Reproduction - the education system reproduces class inequality by failing each generation of working-class pupils

Legitimation - the education system tries to convince people that inequality is inevitable and failure is the fault of the individual, not the capitalist system

Question 2

Bowles & Gintis

Answer 2

Schools create the new generations of workers to serve the capitalist system.

There is a hidden curriculum in schools (lessons that are ‘learned’ but not taught), which is used to serve the capitalist system (Eg. pupils accept hierarchy, competition, alienation)

The functionalist idea of meritocracy is a myth; success is based on class background, not ability or educational achievement.

Question 3

Willis

(Neo-Marxism)

Answer 3

Pupils can see through the ruling class ideology and resist attempts to indoctrinate it in school. Male working class pupils formed a distinct counterculture that flouted school rules.