Marxist And Femenist Veiws Of Education

Question 1

What is Althusser’s views on education

Answer 1

W/c would revolt if if they overcame false class consciousness- so they need to control them through social institutions (achieved through two types of state apparatus: repressive- police, military, court, and ideological- control over thoughts, media, education, religion

Question 2

What does the ideological state apparatus do?

Answer 2

Teaches students skills for employment (prefers them for life of exploitation), reproduces dominant ideology (future workers are submissive), reproduces and legitimises inequality (myth of meritocracy)

Question 3

How do schools achieve producing ideological state apparatus

Answer 3

Fragmented curriculum (have some knoll age but not enough to be critical in thinking), teaches core skills for employment, curriculum based on ruling class values (eg literacy and history are to the taste of ruling class values), myth of meretocracy

Question 4

Contemporary examples of ideological state apparatus

Answer 4

National curriculum split into distinct subjects, students study passing grade in English and maths until 18, growth mindset- promote resilience and hard work, shifts the blame of w/c kids on to not trying hard enough

Question 5

Evaluations of Althusser

Answer 5

Functionalist view- agree with Marxist ideas but suggests there beneficial
Limited empirical evidence-ideas are theoretical
Post modernists suggests there’s more then one way to success

Question 6

What is Bowles and Gintises believe the role of education is

Answer 6

Reproduction of workforce, long shadow of work, hidden curriculum, legitimising inequality

Question 7

How does Bowls and Gintis believe education prepares pupils for capitalist system

Answer 7

Correspondence principle- schools mirror work (punctuality, rewards, extrinsic motivations, hierarchy and power

Question 8

How do Bowls and Gintis believe education legitimised inequality

Answer 8

Opportunity and meritocracy are myths, education confirms w/c students end in w/c jobs, systems give advantages to m/c (gives them prefect due to cultural status)

Question 9

Contemporary applications of Bowles and Gintises theory’s

Answer 9

education is becoming closer to the workplace: Uniform policies, conservatives-‘teachers given power’, role of academies-links closer to work, apprenticeships and vocational education

Question 10

Critics of Bowles and Gintis

Answer 10

Functionalists agree with skills for society but suggests this benefits society
Not all students are passive puppets- Willis
Training and internships are needed to give workers necessary skills- school isn’t teaching them everything

Question 11

What is the difference between how Willis looked at education compared to the other Marxist sociologists

Answer 11

Willis focused on impacts of the educational system from a micro viewpoint while the others focused on structural causes for inequality in the educational system

Question 12

What is Willies view on how education effects pupils

Answer 12

He suggested students weren’t “passive puppets” and were aware of exploitation

Question 13

What did Willis identity the lads as

Answer 13

A group of w/c boys who were disruptive and misbehaved with a very negative attitude to education
Anti-school subculture- praise earned from behaviours against the school ethos

Question 14

What was the conclusion of Willis’s study

Answer 14

Education was an ineffective as an agent of socialisation, the lads were not socialised into work-/rather waiting to leave education, contradicts the work of functionalists and other Marxists

Question 15

How does Willis’s study apply to contemporary society

Answer 15

Anti school subculture within contemporary education, crisis over achievement of w/c males

Question 16

Evaluations of Willis

Answer 16

Possible Hawthorne effect- boys could of acted up around Willis to gain status from peers
Did the boys ‘choose to fail’ or were they impacted earlier in there education by labelling and choosing to fair became there coping mechanisms to cope with self esteem
End result- w/c boys still ended up in w/c jobs- does this prove that education reproduces inequality

Question 17

What is Borurdieu’s veiw on education

Answer 17

Cultural reproduction model suggests cultural differences between individuals where the result of three factors- habitus, field, and cultural capital

Question 18

What is the definition of habitus

Answer 18

Norms, values, attitudes, and behaviours of a particular social group or class as a result of how they were socialised

Question 19

What is the deffenition of field

Answer 19

Social context in which a persons habitus enters- arts, politics, law, education have norms and values that are structured from those of upper and middle class

Question 20

What is the definition of cultural capital

Answer 20

Value of persons cultural knowledge has within a field

Question 21

How does education leaved to cultural reproduction

Answer 21

Middle class given symbolic capital (language, dress sense, cultural knowledge) - teachers and heads are m/c, curriculum written by m/c
W/c subject to symbolic violence for not conforming to m/c habitus

Question 22

Criticisms for Bordieurs ideas

Answer 22

Functionalists- suggests education is meteoric and the knowledge you learn through the curriculum is necessary in order to achieve in society