Marxist View of Education

• Marxist View

  The education system is an agency of social control where children are encouraged to conform and accept their position in society. The education system reproduces and legitimises the social class inequality in society.
• Marxist View

  It also promotes the ideology that failure is due to a lack of effort and ability and is therefore the child's own fault and or is the natural way.
• Functions of Education

  • Passing on the dominant ideology of the ruling classes that capitalism is the accepted way to live
  • Reproduces the inequality in society - streaming, setting and hierarchy of advantage
  • Prepares the working classes for a life of submission and obedience to the ruling classes
• The education system produces the next workforce for a capitalist economy through the hidden curriculum.
• The education system reinforces and justifies the inequality in society.
• An agent of Social Control

  Teaches children the dominant ideology (the way of thinking of the ruling class) by reinforcing a false class consciousness, children are taught to believe that they can improve their class position through hard work. Children are taught to be obedient and not challenge authority.
• Curriculum

  Children learn their 'place through the hidden curriculum where working class children are taught in the long shadow of work', where the school day mimics the factory day and children are not taught specialist skills to make them ready for the piecework of the working-class jobs.
• Curriculum

  Upper class children are taught the skills necessary for leadership and positions of authority and gain the cultural capital to allow them access to the most prestigious universities and employment opportunities.