Conflict Theories of Education

• Louis Althusser


  Argued that the education system was part of what he called the ideological state apparatus
• Ideological state apparatus


  • Institutions that spread bourgeois ideology and ensure that the proletariat is in a state of false class consciousness
  • Schools and educational institutions are part of the ideological state apparatus
• Formal curriculum


  Decisions about what is taught and what is not taught impact the nature of the value consensus that the education system produces
• When former education secretary Michael Gove argued that pupils should learn more British history, he meant British history where the British are heroic repelling invaders, winning battles, ending slavery, defeating fascism and all the great men and women and kings and queens. He certainly did not mean the history of Britain invading and occupying other countries, starting wars over the opium trade, of leading the slave trade, of indifference to suffering in Irish and Indian famines.
• If education was simply about imparting knowledge one would expect all of that to be in the curriculum. If education were about developing a "neutral" value consensus there would be a strong argument for including it only by learning about the past can we avoid repeating it. But the UK education system is much keener to learn from the mistakes of Germans, Russians and Americans, while learning the triumphs and justice of the British.
• A lesson that Britain is always right, that our leaders are wise and just and that it is important to preserve our great traditions, is a very effective conservative ideology that helps people to believe that it would be wrong to push for radical social change.
• Hidden curriculum

  • Education also teaches us about hierarchy, respect for authority, obeying the rules
• Functionalists might argue these are important values and skills for society to function properly, Marxists like Althusser would argue that that these serve to keep the rich and powerful in their positions and to prevent rebellion and revolution.
• Bowles and Gintis


  Identified a "correspondence between school and the workplace
• Aspects of education that correspond to the workplace

  • Hierarchy
  • Rewards and sanctions
  • Passive and docile
  • Motivation
  • Fragmentation
• Bowles and Gintis argued that this prepared pupils for life in the capitalist system and prevented rebellion or revolution.
• The reason schools act in this way is because they work directly in the interests of the capitalist system and the ruling class and their principle purpose is to produce the workforce.
• Bowles and Gintis conducted their research in 1976 and perhaps their findings are more applicable to when they were writing than they are to the present day.
• Some say the education system continues to correspond with the workplaces of a different era, and so no longer prepares people for the modern workplace.
• In contemporary schools, some suggest, pupils are encouraged to get involved with democratic structures and also to complain about aspects of school they dislike, and to come up with ideas for improvements.
• Paul Willis "Learning to Labour"


  Took a different Marxist view on how school prepares children for the workplace from that of Bowles and Gintis
• For Willis, the experience of being a working-class "lad" at school prepares young people for the boredom of manual labour by allowing them to develop a distinct set of values which serve as a coping mechanism.
• The outcome, however, is the same: an easily exploitable workforce which serves the interests of capitalism.
• Pierre Bourdieu


  Argued that it is not only money that gives the wealthy power, but cultural assets too
• Cultural capital


  Knowledge, behaviour, attitudes and cultural experiences that ensures that children of middle-class or wealthier parents succeed in education (and society)
• Habitus


  A culture or worldview that is associated with a social class or social group
• Basil Bernstein


  Wrote about the different language codes used by people of different social classes
• Bernstein argued that teachers, textbooks, exam papers and middle-class pupils share a different language code to working-class pupils, which contributes to schools reproducing inequality.
• Large parts of the education system assess people not an intelligence, merit or effort, but on the extent to which they have a middle-class habitus.
• One potential problem for all Marxist theories of education is that people who work in education are famously left-wing biased and often got into education specifically to do the opposite of what they are accused of in these theories.
• The neo-Marxist argument that this is often about processes that happen unconsciously or semi-consciously rather than Althusser-style brainwashing seems more credible.
• One potential problem for all Marxist theories of education is that people who work in education are famously left-wing biased and often got into education specifically to do the opposite of what they are accused of in these theories
• Many teachers give their reason for joining the profession as being that they wanted to make a difference
• The neo-Marxist argument that this is often about processes that happen unconsciously or semi-consciously rather than Althusser-style brainwashing seems more credible
• Schools might be full of teachers who encourage their pupils to challenge and question authority and who are highly critical of aspects of capitalism and bourgeois society, those same teachers might easily unconsciously assume pupils with a working-class habitus and who always speak and write in a restricted rather than elaborate language code are less able, less engaged, less interested or making less effort
• As the percentage of pupils from a working-class background going on to university degrees has increased, so the number of teachers from a working-class background has also increased, and these teachers will recognise working-class habitus and should understand issues relating to language codes
• Whatever someone's background, by the time that person is working as a teacher they have become middle-class and will have adopted a middle-class habitus
• Interactionists would argue that what is being described here is teachers and pupils constructing meaning from their interactions and, while social class is clearly a key factor, social actors have agency to respond to one another in these ways and not driven by the fundamental structures of society
• Many neo-Marxists would have some agreement with this, showing they do not fit neatly into a structure/action macro/micro typology
• Feminists see the education system as transmitting patriarchal values
• Heaton and Lawson (1996) argued that the hidden curriculum taught patriarchal values in schools, noting traditional family structures in textbooks along with many other gender stereotypes, subjects aimed towards specific genders, gender divisions in PE and sport and the gender division of labour in schools (predominantly female teachers and male managers)
• Liberal feminists would point out these remaining issues of patriarchy in education while also acknowledging significant strides towards equality in the education system
• Girls now outperform boys in education so if the system is a patriarchal one, designed to favour boys, it is singularly failing
• Michelle Stanworth (1983) noted that there will still be higher expectations of boys and teachers would be more likely to recommend boys apply for higher education than girls at the same academic level
• Radical feminists argue that the education system is still fundamentally patriarchal and continues to marginalise and oppress women