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The Marxist perspective on education - Coggle Diagram
The Marxist perspective on education
Althusser (1971) - the ideological state apparatus
The Repressive state apparatus (RSA's) - maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by force or threat of it. Including: police, courts and army
The state consists of two apparatuses which both serve to keep the bourgeoisie in power
The ideological state apparatus (ISA's) - maintain the rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling peoples ideas, values and beliefs. Including: religion, media and the education system
Education reproduces class inequality by transmitting it from generation to generation by failing the working class of each generation
Education legitimises class inequality by producing ideologies to persuade workers to accept that inequality is inevitable and they deserve their subordinate position
see education as based on class and capitalist explotation
Karl Marx- described capitalism as a two class system
the capitalist class- the employers that own the means of production (factories, offices etc.). They make money by exploiting the labour of the majority- working class
The working class- are forced to sell their labour power to the capitalist as they have no means of production therefore no source of income. This labour is poorly paid, alienating and unsatisfying
This creates potential for class conflict
education is seen as functioning to prevent revolution and maintain capitalism
Bowles and Gintis (1976) : schooling in capitalist America
the role of the education system in a capitalist society is to reproduce an obedient workforce that will accept inequality as inevitable
In their study of 237 New York high school students they found that students who gave independence and creativity achieved bad grades whereas students who showed obedience and discipline tended to get high grades
They concluded that schooling helps produce the obedient workers that capitalism needs
' The hidden Curriculum' - 'lessons' at school are taught without actually being taught directly. E.g. they exist through the everyday workings of the school
correspondence principle: the relationships and structures in education mirror to those of work
The myth of meritocracy
The education system prevents people rebelling against the capitalist society and class inequality as it produces ideologies that explain why inequality is inevitable
Bowles and Gintis argue that a meritocracy does not exist as the main factor determining whether someone has a high income is their family and class and not their educational achievement
The education system also justifies poverty as it blames poverty on the individual rather than blaming capitalism- it makes the individual feel like they are poor as a result of not working hard
Willis: learning to labour
their study shows that working class pupils can resist attempts to indoctrinate them
His study of 12 working class boys from education into work
they form a distinct counter-culture and find school boring and therefore flout its values
they see manual work as superior and intellectual work as inferior and effeminate
being accustomed to boredom at school, they dont expect satisfaction from work and are good at finding diversions to cope with it
Evaluation
Post-modernists argue that education now reproduces diversity not inequality
Willis account of the 'lads' can be seen as romanticizing them and portraying them as working class heroes despite their anti-social and sexist behaviour
modernists argue that Marxists take a 'class first' approach that sees class as the main type of inequality and ignores all other kinds
Post-modernists argue that society is more diverse and non-class inequalites such as ethnicity and gender are equally as important.
Feminists such as MacDonald (1980) argue that Bowles and Gintiz ignore the fact that schools reproduce patriarchy as well as capitalism.