Marxist view on education

Question 1

What do marxists believe?

Answer 1

-The upper-class benefits off of capitalism more than the w/c
-Bourgeoisie control the means of production + the proletariat’s don’t see the fruits of their labour

Question 2

Althusser (1971)

Answer 2

-Ideological State apparatus- how the bourgeoisie maintain power by controlling people’s ideas, values, beliefs through the mass media or education
-Repressive state apparatus- maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by force or the threat of it e.g. police, army + courts

Question 3

2 functions the education system performs

Answer 3

-Reproducing class inequality
-Justifying class inequality- by alienating workers that their position in society is normal

Question 4

Bowles + Gintis (1976)

Answer 4

-Argue the role of education is to reproduce the next gen of obedient, docile workers that will accept inequality as inevitable
-Parallels between school + capitalist work life

Question 5

Bowles + Gintis (1976) study

Answer 5

Study of 237 New York highschool students + findings from other studies
-Schools reward the behaviour that reflects the submissive, compliant worker
e.g. students who were independent + creative = low grades compared to disciplined + obedient ones

Question 6

Correspondence principle + hidden curriculum

Answer 6

Schools mirror the structures found at work –>it works through the hidden curriculum- all the ‘lessons’ learnt which aren’t directly taught e.g. being obedient.

Question 7

Cohen (1984)

Answer 7

-Argues youth training schemes serve capitalism by teaching young workers the attitudes + values needed in a labour force
-It lowers their aspirations = will accept low paid work

Question 8

Myth of meritocracy

Answer 8

-Bowles + Gintis argue education is a ‘giant myth making machine’.
-Education isn’t meritocratic as a person’s background + wealth can aid them in succeeding
-The upper class schools will have a certain curriculum which will prepare pupils to be future leaders
-BUT it helps persuade the w/c to accept inequality

Question 9

Willis (1977)

Answer 9

Lads counter-culture
-Used ppt observation + unstructured interviews
-12 working class boys formed a counter-culture by smoking/drinking, disrupting class etc
-Such acts of defiance are ways of resisting the school

Question 10

What does the lads’ counter-culture result in?

Answer 10

-Them slotting into jobs that are inferior in terms of skills, pay + conditions as they wouldn’t have gained the qualifications needed.

Question 11

Evalutation

Answer 11

-Postmodernists criticise Bowles + Gintis’ correspondence principle, as the economy requires schools to reproduce a different kind of labour to the one they described
-Post modernists argue education reproduces diversity
-Deterministic- assume pupils have no free will + will automatically accept indoctrination.
-Ignore other key inequalities such as ethnicity, gender etc
-Feminists - MacDonald (1980)
argue education reproduces patriarchy not just capitalism