marxism

• Althusser on education

  Education is an ideological state apparatus that has 2 functions:

  -reproduce class inequalities

  -legitimates class inequalities
• 2 functions of education - Althusser

  -reproduce class inequalities: transmits from generation to generation. Each generation in a family stays the same class as they were before.

  
  

  -legitimates class inequalities: makes people accept their place in society as inevitable (poor dumb theory).
• how schools teach pupils to accept the bourgeoisie - Althusser

  -fragmented curriculum

  -teaching skills needed for the economy

  -myth of meritocracy
• AO3 - Althusser

  -limited empirical evidence for Althusser's ideas

  -deterministic - thinks that pupils do not have free will but working class people have moved to higher classes

  -functionalists agree with marxists ideas but say that they have a different purpose and benefit society
• poor dumb theory

  Blaming the outcome on the individual instead of capitalism. It is their fault that they ended up in the position they did.
• false class consciousness

  The proletariat do not recognise their own exploitation and carry on contributing to their own exploitation.
• hegemony

  Knowledge, what the bourgeoisie will pass on - the bourgeoisie have dominant hegemony.
• Bowles + Gintis - ideas

  Thought that education reproduces an obedient workforce that will accept inequality as something that is inevitable.

  "capitalism requires a workforce with the kind of attitudes, personality and behaviour types suited to their role."
• Bowles + Gintis - study

  -they studied 237 schools in New York. Their findings show that schools reward personality traits that show obedience, schools do not reward independence or creativity and that education distorts a students development.

  
  

  "work casts a long shadow over school" - education and work are the same, schools prepare pupils for the workplace.
• Correspondence principle - Bowles + Gintis

  School prepares pupils for the workplace through the hidden curriculum:

  -fragmentation: we do different lessons that don't correlate - relates to how in work you will not know the full picture.

  -motivation: pupils are motivated to get good grades even if they don't like school - relates to accepting your job for the end result (money).

  -passive + docile: sitting there + listening - relates to how workers are oppressed by the bourgeoisie.

  -rewards + sanctions: positive points + detentions - relates to how people will face consequences at work (good and bad consequences).

  -hierarchy: teachers have more power than pupils, pupils have to respect teachers - relates to how the proletariat will act around the bourgeoisie.
• what do Bowles + Gintis think about meritocracy?

  They think that meritocracy is a myth.
• AO3 - Bowles + Gintis

  -deterministic

  -reductionist (only looked at class - feminists would also argue that gender plays a role)

  -outdated: schools and workplaces are now more egalitarian than when their research took place.
• Bourdieu 1977

  Education oppresses the working class, the working class will not do well in education.

  Bourdieu came up with the terms: habitus, symbolic capital and symbolic violence.
• habitus

  The learned way of thinking which is shared in a certain group/ social class. This is how you perceive things based on your background.
• symbolic capital

  The status, sense of worth and recognition we get from others. We normally get this from people in a similar group/class as us.
• symbolic violence

  When someone uses their high symbolic capital against someone else which can cause harm.
• fordism

  Industrial production that is based on the division of labour and the use of low-skilled workers. This is mass production.
• Willis anti-school subcultures 1977

  Schools brainwash people into accepting their fate (passively). He focused his research on anti-subcultures and lads in school.

  
  

  Used participant observations and unstructured interviews with 12 school boys - he collected qualitative data.

  
  

  The lads found school boring and meaningless - they didn't think the things they were learning would be useful to them.

  This supports capitalism as the lads learnt to accept not being satisfied at their workplace.
• AO3 - Willis

  -use of 12 boys: lack of representation and generalisation.

  -outdated.

  -debunks the myth of meritocracy.

  -feminists = reductionist = only looks at males.
• Illich

  Education rewards people who conform and stops people who do not conform from progressing. The only way to stop this is by deschooling.

  Illich thinks that schools convince everyone to accept the ideologies of the ruling class.
• deschooling

  Leaving a traditional school and adapting a discovery approach. Learning about the world etc not just what schools teach students.
• why should people deschool?

  The curriculum is dictated by the bourgeoisie, they only put things that they want us to know on the curriculum (things that benefit them). Also to stop children being taught to accept their oppression.
• deschooling example

  Sands school:

  -a small secondary school that is democratic

  -60 pupils

  -no uniform

  -first name basis with everyone

  -are not forced to go to lessons
• human capital

  The ability and skill of workers.
• vocational education

  Education that puts a focus on preparing pupils for skilled work/a certain job.
• do marxists like vocational education?

  No as it sets pupils up to do a specific jobs and work under the bourgeoisie.
• pros and cons of vocational education

  Pros:

  -vital for certain jobs

  -easier for these students to get a job in that field

  
  

  Cons:

  -requires a lot of funding

  -the pupils who do this have little opportunity to change the jobs they will do

  -low earning potential