Contrasting ideas:
Althusser, Bowles and Gintis, and Bourdieu examined the structural causes of inequality in the education system
Wilis suggested that students were not āpassive puppetsā and were aware of exploitation
Learning to labour:
Mixed methods approach- observations, interviews
Studies āthe ladsā- a group of working-class boys who were disruptive, misbehaved and had a very negative attitude to educated
Anti-school subculture- praise earned from behaviours against the school ethos
Conclusions:
Education was ineffective as an agent of socialisation
āThe ladsā were not socialised into work, rather waiting to leave education
Contradicts the work of functionalists and other Marxists
Applications to contemporary society:
An anti-school subculture within contemporary education
Crisis over the achievement of working-class males
Does being a working-class male carry a label of underachievement?
Evaluations:
Close bonds with boys could have caused the Hawthorne Effect
āChoose to failā- is this by design by free will?
End results- Working-class boys ended up in working-class jobs- does this prove that education reproduces inequality?
Knowt
