Bowles and gintis

• The Key Ideas of Bowles and Gintis

  The main role of the education system is to reproduce (recreate over time) a workforce with the necessary qualities to meet the needs of the capitalist economy. These qualities include being hard-working, disciplined, obedient and reluctant to question authority.
• Schools


  • Reward students who display hard-working, disciplined, obedient and reluctant to question authority qualities with high grades
  • Students who show greater independence and creative thinking are more likely to get lower grades
  • Produce an unimaginative and unquestioning workforce with the necessary attitudes for exploitation
• Correspondence principle


  The way education and work connect or fit together (correspond) in a capitalist society
• School and its Hidden Curriculum

  1. Rigid hierarchy of authority with coercive relationships, rules and discipline

  2. Curriculum is fragmented or divided into little packages of knowledge

  3. Tasks are mundane or boring

  4. Students lack power over what they learn

  5. Schoolwork is a means to an end (qualifications) rather than an end in itself (satisfaction)
• Workplace


  • Rigid hierarchy of authority with rules and discipline
  • Jobs are broken down into separate tasks
  • Tasks are mundane
  • Workers have minimum control over work tasks
  • Work is a means to an end (pay) rather than an end in itself (job satisfaction)
• Bowles and Gintis see meritocracy as a myth. A student's social class background rather than their intelligence quotient (IQ) is the most important influence on their educational achievements.
• Bowles and Gintis assume that students passively accept the values taught via the hidden curriculum. However, many students reject the values of the school and resist their teachers' authority
• Bowles and Gintis exaggerate the power of the education system in forming personalities and attitudes
• Businesses today require creative, independent workers rather than passive, unthinking workers. Many teaching methods now encourage creativity rather than rote learning
• Functionalist approaches see the education system as based on meritocracy and equality of opportunity