Role and functions of Education- Marxism

• Ideological State Apparatus


  Means a Social institution whose main role is to pass on the dominate ideology of the Ruling class (How Marxists view education).
• Repressive State Apparatus


  This means a Social institution whose role is to enforce the dominant ideology by force/threat of force. (e.g. the police)
• Correspondence Principle


  How the education system mirrors the world of work (e.g. hierarchy, punctuality).
• Hidden Curriculum


  The informal learning processes that happen within a school but are not openly intended to be taught, it is a side effect of education that teaches students the norms and values of society.
• Althusser (Reproduction of Class Inequality)


  - Education deliberately engineers Working Class failure in order to create an unqualified factory workforce.

  - Private education prepares the children of the elite to hold positions of power.

  
  

  - The Hidden Curriculum is shaped to assist Middle Class achievement and Deter Working class achievement as it transmits the Ruling Class ideology through Capitalist norms and values.
• Althusser (Legitimisation of Social Inequality)


  -M/C has access to more cultural and economic capital which puts them at an advantage.

  
  

  -Education encourages students to blindly accept capitalist values, through the hidden curriculum.
• Bowles And Gintis (Correspondence principle)


  School processes mirror the world of work in order to prepare them for manual labour:

  
  

  - Wages not satisfaction

  - Lack of control

  - Obedience

  - Achieved Status

  - Discipline and consequences

  - Boredom
• Bowles And Gintis (Myth of Meritocracy)


  Education claims to be meritocratic but schools discriminate in favour of the middle class, (e.g. language- Bernstein believes they use an elaborated speech code that is recognized by textbooks and exams).

  
  

  -Hidden Curriculum lowers working-class ambitions.
• Evaluation of Marxist views- Giroux (Neo-Marxism: Modern Marxist theory)


  - Rejects the view that the Working Class passively accept their position to become compliant workers.

  
  

  -Believe that the existence of Anti-School subcultures, Truancy, and Exclusion suggest that both the Hidden Curriculum and the Correspondence Principle have failed- children are rebelling.

  
  

  -Believes that Marxists often fail to acknowledge that gender and ethnicity often combine with class to produce success or failure.
• Evaluation of Marxist Views- Social democratic view


  -Halsey, Floud, and Martin suggest that Marxists exaggerate the effect that education has on working-class achievement.

  
  

  -They point out that Government policies such as the establishment of comprehensive schools, have improved the chances of the working class.
• Evaluation of Marxist Views- Neo-Liberals

  -Saunders claims that middle-class success is due to biological differences.
• Evaluation of Marxist Views- New Right

  - Chubb and Moe argue that Marxists fail to see how education has failed all social groups and not just the Working Class.

  
  

  -They believe that education has failed to equip all students with the skills needed to be successful in the global marketplace.
• Evaluation of Marxist Views- Postmodernism

  -Believe that Marxists fail to acknowledge that education reproduces diversity instead of inequality.

  
  

  -Morrow And Torres claim that students create their own identities instead of being constrained by traditional structures like class. In Postmodern societies, students can make their own choices about their identities (e.g. increasing number of trans students)