The Role of Education – Marxism

MARXISM’S SIMILARITIES TO OTHER THEORIES:

• Functionalism:

  • Both structuralist theories that see education as useful for the economy.

• Neo-liberals:

  • Both critical of the current education system.

MARXISM’S DIFFERENCES TO OTHER THEORIES:

• Social action:

  • They see education as useful to the socialisation of children.

  • Whereas Marxism believes education simply serves the needs of the ruling class.

TWO KEY FUNCTIONS OF EDUCATION (MARX):

1. Reproduces the inequalities and social relations production of capitalist society.

2. Serves to legitimate these inequalities through the myth of meritocracy.

IDEOLOGICAL STATE APPARATUS (ISA) – ALTHUSSER:

• The function of education isn’t to transmit common values.

• It’s an ISA that functions to maintain, legitimate and reproduce class inequalities.

• ISA:

  • A piece of equipment used by the government or the ruling structure in order to pass down their ideas and share them.

• Does this by transmitting ruling-class values disguised as common values.

• Education reproduces the conditions needed for capitalism without having to use force (which would expose it as oppressive).

• Instead spreads ideology through the hidden curriculum – the way schools are organised and the way knowledge is taught means working-class people are encouraged to conform to the capitalist system and accept failure and inequality uncritically.

HIDDEN CURRICULUM:

• Ideas taught to influence the way that you think and to give a false class consciousness.

• Not explicitly said but subtly influence instead.

• Outside of National Curriculum and subject specifications.

BORDIEU:

• Describes the situation as ‘symbolic violence’.

• Working-class have their cultural attributes rejected, and middle class culture is seen as worthy of investment and reward.

• He calls this ‘symbolic violence’ because it’s not physically attacking but attacking what they represent.

SPECIFICATION CONTENTS:

• GCSE English Literature:

  • Shakespeare’s plays.

  • The 19th century novel.

  • Modern prose or drama texts.

  • The poetry anthology.

  • Unseen poetry.

• GCSE Music:

  • The Coronation Anthems and Oratorios of Handel.

  • The Orchestra Music of Hadyn, Mozart and Beethoven.

  • The piano music of Chopin and Schumann.

  • The Requiem of the late Romantic period.

• These specifications both better suit the middle classes because they cater to high class culture and therefore the middle-classes are much more likely to enjoy the taught specification and have opportunities to read into them.

CORRESPONDENCE THEORY:

• Bowles and Gintis argued that education serves to reproduce directly the capitalist relations of production – the hierarchy of workers from the boss down, with the appropriate skills and attitudes.

• Education ensures that workers will unquestioningly adapt to the needs of the system.

  • What goes on in schools corresponds directly with the world of work.

  • Teachers are like the bosses and students like the workers, who work for rewards (exam success rather than wages).

• As the individual progresses through the system they gain more personal freedom, more control over their education or working experience and more responsibility for the outcomes.

  • Success isn’t entirely related to intellectual ability.

  • Those who fit in and conform rise above those who express attitudes or display behaviour which challenges the system.

  • Bowles and Gintis go as far as to say that actually some of the most creative and talented individuals are from the latter group.

• White middle-class students do better whatever their ability.

  • Those denied success blame themselves, rather than the system for their failure as they believe the myth of meritocracy.

  • Therefore, the hidden curriculum not only reproduces the relations of production, it makes inequality in society appear legitimate and fair.

SCHOOL’S CORRESPONDENCE TO WORK:

• Hierarchy of authority among teachers (e.h head – deputy – classroom teacher) and between teachers and students.

  • Hierarchy of authority in the workplace (e.g managers – supervisors – workers).

• Alienation through students’ lack of control over education (e.g over what to study, timetabling).

  • Alienation through workers’ lack of control over production (e.g managers decide what, how, when and where to produce).

• Extrinsic satisfaction (rewards external to the work itself), e.g from grades, rather than from interest in subjects studied.

  • Extrinsic satisfaction, e.g from pay rather than from doing the job itself.

• Fragmentations and compartmentalisation of knowledge into unconnected subjects.

  • Fragmentation of work through the division of labour into small, meaningless tasks.

• Competition and divisions amongst students, e.g to come top of the class; to be in a higher stream.

  • Competition and divisions amongst the workforce, e.g through differences in status and pay.

• Levels of education (streams, year groups): lower levels have fewer choices and close supervision; higher levels are trusted to get on with work and self-directed learning.

  • Levels of the occupational structure: lower levels the workers are closely supervised and given orders; higher levels the workers internalise company’s goals and self-supervise.

STRENGTHS OF CORRESPONDENCE THEORY:

• The freedom of teachers has been restricted by the introduction of a national curriculum.

• Many specialist schools and city academies have a work-orientated ethos. Employers also have more say in the curriculum and organisation of such schools.

• Education has become more explicitly designed to meet the needs of employers – not only in curriculum terms, but also with the introduction of more vocational education such as GNVQ, BTECs and the new Diplomas.

• Willis supported the principle that schools reproduce the relations of production. He demonstrated that his ‘lads’ shared a similar outlook to the workers in the factories they were likely to end up in. They accepted the inevitability of educational failure and so developed strategies (‘having a laff’) to deal with the boredom of school which would also serve them well in the boring jobs they were destined for.

WEAKNESSES OF CORRESPONDENCE THEORY:

• The survival of liberal humanities-based subjects and limited emphasis on science and applied knowledge suggests a lack of correspondence. How can A-Level sociology be so popular if schools are all about developing unthinking workers?

• Brown argues that modern businesses require shared creativity and teamwork. However, in the exam system people are judged and compete with one another as individuals.

• There’s actually a lack of correspondence between schools and the needs of the economy in particular, in terms of the content of the formal curriculum. Employers are highly critical of the low level employability skills of school leavers and graduates.

• Reynolds – the curriculum doesn’t seem to teach either the skills needed by employers or uncritical passive behaviour that would make workers easy to exploit. Many studies show that students have little regard for the rules of school, and little respect for the authority of the teacher.