Marxist And Femenist Veiws Of Education Flashcards
What is Althusser’s views on education
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
What does the ideological state apparatus do?
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)
How do schools achieve producing ideological state apparatus
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
Contemporary examples of ideological state apparatus
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
Evaluations of Althusser
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
What is Bowles and Gintises believe the role of education is
Reproduction of workforce, long shadow of work, hidden curriculum, legitimising inequality
How does Bowls and Gintis believe education prepares pupils for capitalist system
Correspondence principle- schools mirror work (punctuality, rewards, extrinsic motivations, hierarchy and power
How do Bowls and Gintis believe education legitimised inequality
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)
Contemporary applications of Bowles and Gintises theory’s
education is becoming closer to the workplace: Uniform policies, conservatives-‘teachers given power’, role of academies-links closer to work, apprenticeships and vocational education
Critics of Bowles and Gintis
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
What is the difference between how Willis looked at education compared to the other Marxist sociologists
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
What is Willies view on how education effects pupils
He suggested students weren’t “passive puppets” and were aware of exploitation
What did Willis identity the lads as
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
What was the conclusion of Willis’s study
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
How does Willis’s study apply to contemporary society
Anti school subculture within contemporary education, crisis over achievement of w/c males
Evaluations of Willis
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
What is Borurdieu’s veiw on education
Cultural reproduction model suggests cultural differences between individuals where the result of three factors- habitus, field, and cultural capital
What is the definition of habitus
Norms, values, attitudes, and behaviours of a particular social group or class as a result of how they were socialised
What is the deffenition of field
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
What is the definition of cultural capital
Value of persons cultural knowledge has within a field
How does education leaved to cultural reproduction
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
Criticisms for Bordieurs ideas
Functionalists- suggests education is meteoric and the knowledge you learn through the curriculum is necessary in order to achieve in society
