Marxist persp Flashcards
Marx
Capitalism is a 2 class system
-Capitalist class : bourgeoisie
-Working class : proletariat
-see education as functioning to prevent revolution and maintain capitalism.
Althusser
State has two apparatuses- serve to keep bourgeoisie in control
-The repressive state apparatus, maintains B rule by force eg place, courts, army (physical coercion to repress wc)
-The ideological state apparatus, controls values, ideas, beliefs eg region, media, education system
Althusser (edu function)
-Reproduces class inequality, by transmitting it through generations
-Legitimises class inequality, producing ideologies that disguise its true cause. Ie persuade workers to accept inequality as inevitable.
Bowles & Gintis (schooling in capitalist america)
-Education reproduces obedient, hardworking workforce that will accept inequalities as inevitable
(Study concludes schls reward submissive, compliant behaviour eg obedience & discipline for higher grades than creativity/independence)
-Therefore it doesn’t foster personal development but stunts it.
Bowles & Gintis (correspondence principle & hidden curriculum)
-Argue close parallels between schooling & work in capitalist society
-hierarchies of authority
-alienation-lack of control over work
-extrinsic satisfaction- rewards external to work itself
-competition & division
-Levels of education / occupational structure
-Operates through hidden curr- lessons learnt without being directly taught eg daily working lead pupils to accept hierarchy, competition ect
Bowles & Gintis (myth of meritocracy)
-Edu prevents poor rebelling by legitimising class inequality
-Through the ‘myth of meritocracy’- it doesn’t exist (unlike F) evidence comes from class being a main factor determining a high income, not ability
-Disguises this, makes it seem fair- helps persuade wc to accept inequality
-Also justifies poverty ‘poor-are-dumb’ theory. By blaming poverty onto individuals rather than capitalism- less likely to rebel against system
Willis (learning to labour)
-Interested in way schooling serves capitalism (combines interactionism)
-P obs & unstructured int to study 12 wc boys transition to workforce.
-Lads formed a distinct counter-culture opposed to the school- smoking, drinking, disruptive ect. (ways to resist school)
-Reject meritocratic ideology that wc can achieve mc jobs through effort
-Similarity between lads anti school SC & shop floor culture of manual workers - see manual work superior, intellectual work inferior
-So see themselves superior to girls & ear’oles (conformist males)
-But they were accustomed to capitalists needs: don’t seek satisfaction at work, rebellious tendencies ensure they end up in unskilled jobs (fail schl)
Critique of Willis
-romanticises the ‘lads’ as wc hero’s despite their anti-social behaviour and sexist attitudes
-Small scale (12 boys) in one school is unlikely representative of other pupils experiences.
Advantages of marxism
-Useful in exposing ‘myth of meritocracy’. show the role that education plays as an ideological state apparatus, serving the interests of capitalism by reproducing & legitimising class inequality
-Willis work stimulated a great deal of research into how edu reproduces & legitimatises inequality (eg Connell: reproduces ethnic&gender ineq)
Postmodernism critique
-Critique B&G correspondence principle as today’s post-fordist economy requires school to produce a different workforce than described by marxists- they argue schl reproduces diversity not inequality
-Morrow & Torres: society now more diverse, see non-class inequalities eg ethnicity, gender, sexuality as equally important. So sociologists must explain how it legitimises all, not just class, and how there’re interrelated
-Outdated, workforce now post-fordist not fordism which requires skilled, adaptable workforce for advances in tech
Feminist critique (macDonald)
-B&G ignore the fact that schools reproduce not only capitalism but patriarchy.
-Females largely absent from Willis study
Critique
-B&G take a determinist view-pupils have no free will and passively accept indoctrination. This fails to explain why many pupils reject school values
