Marxist Perspectiv

e on Education

Education serves the interests of the powerful. It maintains their power, justifies their privileges and legitimizes their wealth.

Bourgeoisie

Education Proletariat

Bowles and Gintis

The major role of education in the capitalist societies is the reproduction of labour power.

Correspondence Principle – They argue that there is a close correspondence between social relationships which governs social interaction in the work place and social interaction in the education system.

Education is subservient to the needs of those who controls the workforce- the owners of the means of production.

Hidden Curriculum

According to Bowles and Gintis in order for capitalism to succeed, it requires a hard working, docile, obedient and highly motivated workforce which is too divided to challenging authority.

The education system helps to achieve these objectives through the hidden curriculum

The Hidden Curriculum consists of those things that pupils learn through the experiences of attending school rather than the stated objectives of such institutions.

The hidden curriculum shapes the workforce by:

1. Creating an unimaginative and unquestioning workforce that can be easily manipulated by employers.

2. Encouraging and acceptance of hierarchy.3. Motivated by external rewards

(qualifications; wages)4. Fragmentation of school subjects;

fragmentation of the workforce.

According to Bowles and Gintis the formal curriculum corresponds to the needs of capitalist employers.

Education Surplus of skilled labour competition

Low wages

Legitimation of inequality- By making society appear fair and just, class consciousness does not develop and the stability off society is not treated

Myth of Meritocracy

Bowles and Gintis disagree with the functionalist who see capitalist societies as meritocratic. They believe that class background is the most important factor influencing level of attainment.

The idea that we all compete on equal terms is an illusion. The education system disguises the myth of meritocracy. The children of the wealthy tend to obtain higher qualification and better jobs regardless of thier abilities.

IQ, educational attainment, meritocracy

No relationship between IQ and academic qualifications.

Direct relationship between educational attainment and family background.

Based on their findings they argued that the educational system does not function as a meritocracy.

The main factors accounting occupational reward were the individuals class, ethnicity and gender rather than their educational attainment.

They conclude that the education system reproduces inequality. They reject the functionalist perspective of the relationship between education and stratification.( parsons, Davis and Moore)

Refer to text for Criticisms of Bowles and Gintis

Marxism summarised

Education reproduces the inequalities and social relations of production of Capitalist Society.

Education serves to legitimate these inequalities under the guise of Meritocracy.

Louis Althusser

Althusser believed that education socialises working class children into accepting their subordinate status to the middle class.

Education conveys the ideology of the ruling class.

Education prepares individuals for the world of work, in order to accept their position in a capitalist society.

Ivan Illich (173)

Schools kill creativity, insist on conformity, and offer indoctrination into capitalistic society.

Children learn to accept authority in an unthinking fashion and this leads them to accept government dictats in the same way.

Paul Willis (1977)

Did an ethnography of twelve anti-school boys ‘the lads’

These boys rejected school and other children within it, presenting themselves as superior

Willis claims that working class children choose to fail in school as a rejection of capitalism

Their rejection of school is an act of resistance

Resistance is futile

Two Marxist viewpoints

Traditional Marxist

Louis Althusser

Schools pass on messages that people accept without question. They are socialised into accepting capitalism

Neo- Marxism

Paul Willis

Children can see through the ideology, but it doesn’t matter. The reality is low pay work, poverty and oppression regardless.

What are the strengths of Marxism?

It points out how ideology is transmitted within schools via the hidden curriculum.

It recognises conflict of interest in schools; not everyone shares values.

It points out the inequalities of both opportunity and outcome in the system

And the weaknesses?

It assumes teachers are unaware of class dynamics and are all middle class agents

Many working class children do succeed in the education system

It overemphasises class and ignores other structural inequalities: ethnicity and gender