Marxism Education

Question 1

Althusser

Answer 1

The repressive state apparatuses like the police, courts and army use force to repress the working class and keep them in their place

The ideology state apparatuses maintain the power of the ruiling class by controlling the peoples idea and beliefs- for example, the media, religion and education

The education system reproduces class inequality by passing it on from one generation to the next

Education justifies and legitimizes class inequality by producing ideologies that disguise its true cause. The function of inequality is to persuade workers to accept inequality as inevitable

Question 2

Bowles and Gintis

Answer 2

The education system helps to create a workforce to support capitalism that is hard working and obedient

Schools reward personality traits that make for a submissive, compliant worker

There is a close correspondence between schools and workplaces and a hidden curriculum that teaches students how to behave in a way that will benefit capitalism without them knowing this is what is happening

There is a myth of meritocracy and in fact it is people of higher social class that are more likely to succeed in education

Question 3

Cohen

Answer 3

Youth training schemes serve capitalism by teaching young workers, not genuine job skills, but rather then attitudes and values needed in a subordinate labor force. It lowers their aspirations so that they will accept low paid work

Question 4

Willis

Answer 4

‘Learning to labour’ in this study Willis looked at the way that working class bits resisted attempt to indoctrinate them. He focused on the meaning that pupils give to their situation and how these enable them to resist indoctrination

Willow used observations of 12 working class boys as they made their transition from school to work

The boys formed a counter- culture and took the piss out of the ‘ear holes’ who listened to the teachers and the girls

The boys act in ways that show defiance to the school rules, and this mirrored the shop floor culture lf male manual workers

Their acts of rebellion guarantee they will be stuck in low paid unskilled jobs