Marxist perspective on education

Marxist perspective on society

Eduation is a tool used by ruling class ( the bourgeoisie) ti maintain power and wealth → schools produce obedient, passive owrkforce ready to be exploited by capitalist system instead of serving society as whole

Althusser - Idealocical state apparatus

State maintains power through two appraratuses - through the Repressive State Apparatus (force - through army and police), and through Ideological State Apparatus (idealogy - through schools to control ideas and beliefs)

→schools control people’s ideas and believes by teaching capitalisn is fiar and natural by training students to accept authority, and teaches it is fair as in school students with high grades are seen as hardworking and smart so meritocracy is in school, and as schools mirrors wider society, if they fail in society they attribute it to themselves (not working hard enough), instead of to circunstancs such as ascribed status, connections or financial support from family - teaches victim blaming.

ISA - AO3

Critics argue Althusser’s thoery only works if students are assumed to be puppets of state - contradicted by anti - school sub - cultures,

→willis found that working class lads were not brainwashed but saw through myth of meritocarcy and chose to reject the system that sets them up for failure.

→ reseach by Shain shows minority students develop ‘sub - cultures of resistence’ to challenge “British Values’, showing that studetns have agency to decode and reject messages they are being taught.

Bowles and Gintis: schooling in capitalist America

Correspondence principle → close relationship between school and workplace.

-hidden curriculum of schools: headteachers vs bosses, extrinsic rewards (grades vs pay), fragmentation of knowledge (lessons vs shifts) to prepare working class children for boring, repetitive manual labour.

schoolingin capitalist America AO3,

Critics of Bowles and Gintis state that they ignore modern economy - postmodernists (people who believe everyone’s reality is different) argue that the ‘Post - Fordist’ workplace (wehre employees need flexible skills) requires creative, independent workers rather than mindless, obedient ones.

→ Sutton trust in 2024 shows that whilst class still predicts success, the hidden curriculum has shifted with elite schools focusingon builidn skills and character rather than just blind obedience = corresponding principle has evolved.