Marxists Flashcards
What’s the Marxist view on Education?
Education is there to produce a well behaved workforce and it reproduces inequalities through each generation.
Bowles and Gintis
Marxists believe that education teaches children how to behave throughout life- you are taught things not on the official curriculum. Bowles and Gintis call this the correspondence principle, wherein you learn your position in the social hierarchy, for example through calling teachers ‘Miss’ and ‘Sir’, conveying their superiority to the individual.
Willis
The purpose of education is to produce a workforce willing to accept exploitation and fill the unskilled, physical work. E.g studied 12 boys, ‘the lads’ who were working class. They ridiculed those who did listen in class and attained poor grades, thought they were rebelling but in reality they were doing exactly what society wanted them to. Education ensures working classes accept jobs that are poorly paid and alienating.
Althusser
The purpose of education is to brainwash us into thinking that society is fair and equal. This is an ‘ideological state apparatuse’ (controlling people through thought and belief), and is used by the upper classes because they want everyone to have their ideas and beliefs. E.g education transmits the capitalist values of obedience. The bourgeoisie control everything in society.
Bowles and Gintis Evaluation
There is a clear link between the way we are expected to follow authority in school and in the workplace. But, it is unlikely that teachers (many of whom have backgrounds in Sociology) would teach students to be docile.
(New Right would argue that the problem with our education system is that it is owned by the state instead of businesses. True capitalism can create competition, making the education more beneficial)
Willis Evaluation
Cannot categorise the classes in this way- many working class boys do not rebel in class and many middle class boys do.
(Functionalists would agree Education does sort people into high paid and low paid jobs, but Davis and Moore state this is not based on class, but on intelligence and hard work and this is functional for society)
Althusser Evaluation
It is difficult to accept that in todays society people are so easily brain-washed by the ruling class- we are more aware today with the internet.
(Heaton and Lawson are Feminists who criticise Marxists on several grounds. Teaches patriarchal values and it is females that are sorted into the low paid work with the boys, even if they are lower class going into higher paid work)
