Neo-Marxist Approach

An example of neo-Marxism applied to education is the work of Henry Giroux (1984). He disagrees with the conventional Marxist approach of Bowles and Gintis because he does not believe that working-class pupils passively accept everything they are taught, but actively shape their own education and sometimes resist the discipline imposed on them by the school. Schools are sites of ideological struggle by different classes and by different ethnic, religious and cultural groups striving to ensure that education provides the things they wish for.

Capitalists have more power than any other single group but they don't have all the power. The most influential neo-Marxist study of education is a study of a group of boys (or 'lads') in a Midlands comprehensive school in the 1970s. Paul Willis (1977) conducted the study using interviews and participant observation in the school. The boys studied formed a group that took up an anti-school stance, opposing the norms and values supported by the school. The 'lads' saw themselves as superior to teachers and conformist pupils who they called 'ear 'oles'. They were not interested in getting academic qualifications. At school, their main aim was to do as little work as possible while entertaining themselves by 'having a laff' through bad behaviour. Their anti-school culture was sexist (looking down on women) and racist (looking down on ethnic minorities). They valued traditional working-class masculinity, which emphasised toughness and saw manual work as more valuable than non-manual work such as office work. Willis followed the lads into their first jobs, which were overwhelmingly unskilled manual jobs, often in factories. He found that in these jobs there was a shop-floor culture which was very similar to the counter-school culture. They both involved lack of respect for authority and 'having a laff' to cope with boring and tedious work over which they had little control. However, it was clear that although the 'lads' rejected aspects of ruling class ideology, their rebellion against school meant that they still ended up reproducing class inequality since they moved on to working-class jobs.

Neo-Marxist perspectives suggest that the hidden curriculum is not always accepted and that education does not always succeed in socialising pupils into dominant values. It suggests that both functionalism and Marxism exaggerate conformity in education. Furthermore it is clearly the case that not all pupils conform at school. However, Willis's study is small-scale and dated. Working-class pupils may not reject school as often today.