Marxism And Education

Question 1

What is cultural capital?

Answer 1

Argues that middle class parents endow their children with a cultural capital; this includes cultural competence, social skills and language that is ‘better’ than that of the working class. Schools favour these competencies for educational success yet fail to teach them to working class children.

Question 2

What did Boudon say?

Answer 2

Cost of persistence- financial, cultural and social

Question 3

What is the cost of persistence?

Answer 3

The ideas that there are certain costs of staying in further and higher education which deters the working classes from persuing education

Question 4

What is a criticism of Boudon?

Answer 4

Paul Willis

Question 5

What did Paul Willis do?

Answer 5

Neo- Marxist
12 WC lads (observation and group interviews, longitudinal case study)
Counter school culture

Question 6

What is a criticism of Paul Willis?

Answer 6

He only used a small sample which is unrepresentative of the whole population and due to his research being done using the observation method, it could not be replicated. Also, what about WC student who do well?

Question 7

What are the functions of education according to Marxists?

Answer 7

Broadcast the myth that everyone has an equal chance
Reproduce further generations of workers
Eliminate the working class ( warehousing/social reproduction)
Transmit ruling class ideology

Question 8

What are the criticism of the Marxist views of education?

Answer 8

Too negative as some WC do well
Apart from Willis they ignore the power of the individual and are determination
Feminists argue that they ignore gender issues
They also ignore ethnicity issues
Postmodernists argue education reproduces diversity not inequality