Marxism

What is Marxism ?

• Marxism is a conflict theory they believe that the economic system of capitalism creates inequality.

• They believe that the bourgeoisie oppress the proletariat. As they own the means of production (factories, land etc) they are the people who benefit most from the work of the proletariat.

• Marxists believe that the proletariat will come to realise the inequality that exist and at this point they will have a revolution which will lead to communism .

What is the Marxist perspective on education?

• The main role of education is to produce an efficient, submissive, obedient workforce for us to help maintain the unequal capitalist society.

• The education system is a conspiracy which exists to deny the children of the working-class access to an understanding of their true class position.

What is Althusser’s Ideological State Apparatus perspective ?

Althusser argues the state consists of two elements of ‘apparatus’, both of which serve served to keep the bourgeoisie in power:

Repressive State Apparatus- physical control through institutions such as the justice system and military.

Ideological State Apparatus - control over the way the working class think. This apparatus passes on the ruling class ideology. This is done through institutions such as family, religion and education.

What does Althusser’s Ideological State Apparatus mean in the context of education ?

In Althusser’s view the education system performs two functions:

• Education reproduces class inequality by transmitting it from generation to generation.

• Education legitimises class inequality by producing ideologies that disguise its true cause. The function of ideology is to persuade workers accept that inequality is inevitable and that they deserve their subordinate position in society.

• This benefits capitalism, as if the working-class accept these ideas, they are less likely to challenge or threaten capitalism and have a revolution.

• Critics argue, there is no empirical evidence to support this.

• Willis rejects this view that school simply ‘brainwashes’ pupils into passively accepting their fate.

What is Bowles and Gintis correspondence principle ?

• They argue, education is there to reproduce the workforce.

• They studied 237 New York high school students and found schools favour submissive and compliant workers.

• These are the traits that are reinforced at school through praise and good grades.

• Bowles and Gintis conclude from this evidence that schools function is to produce the obedient workers that capitalism needs.

• They also say that school and the workplace ’correspond’, They have similarities so that school prepares students for work.

• Students learn to be good workers through the ‘hidden curriculum’. This is all the skills that are learnt implicitly. For example, punctuality, obedience, acceptance of hierarchy, competition etc.

• It can be argued that the ‘Correspondence Principle’ is outdated. In 1976 companies did run on these principles, but in the ‘post-Fordist Society’ other qualities are required e.g. creativity, innovation and collaborative skills.

• Critics argue this view is deterministic as students have free will.

• School doesn’t always provide the skills needed for work.

What is Bowles and Gintis’ myth of meritocracy theory ?

• Unlike functionalists such as Parsons, Bowles and Gintis argue that meritocracy does not exist; it is a myth.

• Education makes everything look fair, but evidence shows that gender, ethnicity and class all have an effect on educational achievement.

• Those most likely to succeed middle class students, not because they have higher ability but because they are advantaged from the onset.

• The myth of meritocracy legitimises education and maintains a false class consciousness in the working class.

• Feminists such as Madeleine MacDonald argue Bowles and Gintis Ignore the fact that schools reproduce not only capitalism, but patriarchy too.

• Postmodernists, Morrow and Torres argue that society is now more diverse. They see non-class inequalities, such as ethnicity, gender and sexuality as equally important.

What is Willis’ learning to labour perspective ?

• Willis’s study shows that working class pupils can resist attempts to indoctrinate them.

• Willis studied the counter-school culture of ‘the lads’ - a group of 12 working class boys - as they make them transition from school to work.

• The lads found school boring and meaningless and they rejected its rules and values by smoking and drinking, disrupting classes and truanting.

• However, the irony is that by resisting the school’s ideology, the lads counter-culture ensured that they were destined for unskilled, manual work that capitalism needs someone to perform.

• Critics argue that Willis’s account of ‘the lads’ of romanticises them portraying them as working class heroes despite their antisocial behaviour and sexist attitudes.

• Willis’s small scale study of only 12 boys in one school is unlikely to be representative of other pupils’ experience and it would be risky to generalise his findings.