4ed

• Althusser (1971)

  Education is the main agency of ideological control - ideological state apparatus.
• Ideological State Apparatus


  Passes on the norms and values of capitalism to children. The ruling class cannot maintain power only via force (repressive state apparatus). Schools transmit an ideology which states that capitalism is just - preparing pupils to accept future exploitation.
• Althusser - Criticisms

  Armchair theorising
• Bowles and Gintis (1976)


  Correspondence to how pupils are threated in school and workers are treated in the workplace achieved via a hidden curriculum. Education legitimised class inequalities and promotes the myth of meritocracy.
• Hidden Curriculum


  A hidden agenda behind schooling. Values and norms which are taught to young people which benefit the ruling class and the capitalist system.
• Paul Willis (1977)


  Some children choose to fail.
• Good Points

  1. Unveils the interests of the dominant and powerful groups in shaping schooling.

  2. Reveals the undeclared agenda of schooling.
• Criticism

  1. Tends towards conspiracy theory - that there is a hidden function of schooling.

  2. Very value laden (biased) - Marxists always relate everything in society back to capitalism and social class.

  3. Post modernists would argue that education needs to produce a different type of labour force than the one described by Marxists.