Marxism

• Marxism ideological state apparatus

  Althusser

  argues that education is an ISA which transmits the ruling class ideology to pupils in order to legitimise the inequalities created by education
• Marxism hegemony

  Gramsci

  the education system reproduces the 'double hegemony' meaning working class will subscribe to capitalism values which are not in their best interest - education tells students if they work hard they will succeed, if they fail they are to blame and not the system
• Marxism correspondence principle

  Bowles and Gintis

  school mirrors the workplaces characteristics to prepare working class students - uniform, discipline, punctuality
• Marxism fragmentation of knowledge

  learning at school is fragmented into different subjects lasting an hour- this corresponds to the fragmentation of the workplace - workers specialise in particular tasks and this makes workers easier to control because they are divided - more difficult to unite
• Marxism Learning to Labour

  Paul Willis

  study of 12 wc boys that were aware of the myth of meritocracy and rebelled against the system - formed an anti-school sub culture- this attitude ensured the boys failed at school

  criticism- romanticising the lads, malestream, unrepresentative
• Neo marxism culture capital

  Bourdieu

  what counts as educational knowledge is not the culture of society but the culture of the dominant social class

  criticism by Keddie - the working class are culturally different not deprived
• Marxism elaborated and restricted code

  Bernstein

  Elaborated code- used by the mc and is the language teachers and exams use- more likely to succeed, as they have an advantage

  Restricted code- used by the wc, less analytic and more descriptive
• Marxism low income and restricted speech codes

  Feinstein

  found that low income was related to restricted speech code
• Marxism higher education

  Boudon

  argues that our position in the class system is fundamental to success or failure particularly at university
• Criticisms of Marxism

  • Wrong questions the extent to which people can be socialised into conformity
  • Friere believes that education helps people break free from oppressive system
  • Post modernist challenge the notion that in our Post Fordist economy that we want pupils to be passive and docile