Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Education and Marxism
Education and Marxism
Marxist and other conflict views of the role and purpose of education:
social control, ideology, hegemony; ‘deschoolers’ (Illich, Friere):
socialisation into conformity by coercion.
By the time you’ve worked through this area of
the specification, you’ll be expert on:
Ruling class ideology;
Legitimation of inequality;
Correspondence principle / theory;
Social reproduction;
n ce pt
se co
Counter(anti)-school culture;
o t h e – but
Hidden curriculum; e ’ l ld e e n d
ut
W a t th a b o
Fragmentation; r d s h i n k
ca
v e a t n ow,
ha a n
Myth of meritocracy; let’s these me u know
o
Shop-floor culture; what g what y heory
Penetrations; in tt
know t Marxis
Ideological state apparatus;
abou already…
Subservient workforce;
Acceptance of hierarchy;
‘Jug and mug’ principle;
Motivation by external rewards.
Prepares pupils
for their role in
the workplace; Legitimises
Transmits
ruling class inequality
ideology; and disguises
exploitation;
Reproduces new
generations of
workers,
Rewards schooled to
conformity accept their
and place in capitalist
obedience; society.
He wrote
for marx. 1969.
A
TEACHER!
* The ruling class cannot hold power for long simply by the use of force.
Ideological control through influencing the way people think, is the
most effective way for the ruling class to maintain power over the
subject class.
You are feeling very
sleepy; give yourself
up to those in
power; strive to
obey; don’t question
or challenge…
* Schools transmit an ideology which states that capitalism is just and
reasonable.
That’ll be $2.50,
please. Cost price
was 15 cents which
gives me a net
daylight robbery
figure of $1.35.
We’ll just
Uh-uh, OK.
pretend
we’re
American for
a minute…
* Schools prepare pupils to accept their future exploitation.
It’s actually got
Why do I have nothing to do with the
to sit in the tie. We’re just getting
cooler for three you trained up to do
hours because as your future boss
I’m not wearing says. We’re breaking
the school tie? your spirit.
Having gutless
workers &
consumers is the
only way capitalism
will survive…
* Pupils who become managers and decision makers through their
qualifications which legitimate their power over others.
If you work really hard, Maxwell, you could
become a deputy head teacher, just like me.
Then you get to shout at people and drive
around in a Vauxhall people carrier.
We teach you to submit to an …so that by the time you’ve got a job,
authority figure and to behave you’re a natural!
quietly and politely, surpressing
your impulses….
* By maintaining power over children, teachers are training children to
become a subservient and docile workforce who will not challenge the
power of capitalism.
How do teachers make children into
puppets?
* The fragmentation of the school day and subjects corresponds to the
fragmentation of the workforce. By keeping workers unaware of the
overall running of a business, they cannot use this knowledge to set up
in competition.
Teachers are
*******s.
Flooding the bogs
was a particularly
proud moment for
Kids who work me.
hard in school
need kicking.
* They focused on ‘having a laff’ to cope with the boredom they felt at
school & in work. But they clearly just try to cope with tedium and
oppression instead of actively challenging it.
RESEARCH METHOD: As well as drawing upon Marxist sociology, Willis
used some of the research techniques of interactionism and micro
theory. His ethnographic method used observation in class, recorded
discussions, informal interviews and diaries. He focused on 12 working
class lads in their last 18 months at school and their first few months at
work.
Why didn’t
WEAKNESSES: Willis look at
unrepresentative sample people like
size which focuses only me?
on male experiences.
What is an ideological state An institution, influenced by the State,
apparatus? that transmits ruling-class ideas in the
guise of mainstream ideas in order to
reproduce, legitimise and hide existing
patterns of class inequality.
What message does the hidden That failure is the result of individual
curriculum mainly transmit, deficiency, rather than a consequence
especially to working class pupils? of capitalism’s need for a manual
labour force.
How do Bowles & Gintis view the As an ideological myth. A few working
concept of meritocracy? class pupils are allowed access to
further and higher education to give
the impression of equality of
opportunity, which is false.
Critics argue the Marxist They say education benefits a
sociologists of education have a capitalist elite, but the large number of
simple view of decision-making and influential groups in the education
power in education. Why is this? system suggests Marxists are being
too simplistic.
How might truancy and exclusion It suggests the hidden curriculum
be used to criticise the Marxist doesn’t always succeed in producing
theory of education? conformist pupils.
Why is it difficult to test Marxist They are highly abstract ideas that are
concepts such as the hidden difficult to operationalise (turn into
curriculum & ideology? variables that can be observed &
measured easily).
Why did Paul Willis’s ‘lads’ see Because they were happy to move into
education as irrelevant? manual work in factories, for which
qualifications were generally not
required.
What was the effect of the hidden There was no effect. The value system
curriculum on Willis’s ‘lads’? of the school was ignored – the ‘lads’
substituted their own value system
based on ‘having a laff’.