marxist

• Marxism: Bowles and Ginitis

  Correspondence theory: What happends in school correlates with what happends in the real world. E.g. registering= clocking in.

  People have to learn 'just enough' to become dutiful workers, but 'not enough' to challenge the capitalist society.

  Labour alienation is replicated at school
• Marxism views on education:

  • education produces a labour force for capitalism.
  • this involves the teachings of qualities and skills needed.
  • education reproduces the relationships and conditions that exist between workers and employers.
• Marxism: the hidden curriculum

  • the norms and values which are taught indirectly and are part and parcel of the organisation and routes of the school.
  • features include; friendship, honesty, fairness, the value of work, ethnic relations, and cultural differences.
• Marxism: Paul Willis

  Claimed that the 'lads' had formed an anti-school subculture. They rejected school and all its values and instead focused on the day they would eventually be allowed to leave. They formed their own set of values that opposed the ones in school.
• Marxism: Criticisms of Willis

  • The study romanticised the lads as working-class heros.
  • Small sample (12 boys) is not representative of wider society and cannot be generalised.
• Marxism: Other studies of anti-school, subcultures:

  Colin Lacey

  • "high-town grammar" (1970)
  • Found similar process in a grammar school (where all students had been positively labelled following the 11+ exam.
  • Students in grammar schools were also streamed.
  • Conclusion: education differentiation seems to be the most important factor in the development of subcultures.
• Marxism: Other studies of anti-school, subcultures:

  Epstein (1989)- 'laddish subcultures'

  • Argues that laddish subcultures has contributed to boys' under-acheivement. She exclaimed the way masculinity is constructed within a school, and found that working-class boy's are likely to be harrassed, labelled as 'sissies' and subject to homophobic verbal abuse if they appear to be swots.
• Marxism: Other studies of anti-school subcultures:

  Mac An Gail- Gender identities 'the male gaze'

  • Argues that the way male pupils and teachers look girls up and down, seeing them as sexual objects and making judgements about their appearence is a form of survallience where dominant masculine identities are reinforced.
• Marxism: Other studies of anti-school subcultures:

  Conolly (1998)

  Found that teachers saw black- boys as disruptive under-achievers and controlled them by punishing them more by channelling their enegries into sport. The boys in turn, responded by seeking status in non-academic ways.