Marxism and Education

Question 1

Who argues about the ISA?

Answer 1

• Althusser

Question 2

What is the ideological state apparatus?

Answer 2

• part of society which keeps the bourgeoisie in power by repoducing and justifying inequalites.
  For example the education system

Question 3

How does education repoduce inequalities?

Answer 3

• unequal access to resources, a curriculum that may not reflect diverse backrounds (ethnocentric) and the hidden curriculum that transmits social norms and expectations.

Question 4

What is a further support that suggest that education being an ISA

Answer 4

• the government has made it illegal for teaches to promote anti-capitalist views, proving that education is a tool used by the bourgeoisie to protect capitalism.

Question 5

What do Marxits argue about speicalised skills?

Answer 5

• that we need to fulfil the futures of our class
• our talents are almost predetermined based on social class labelling
  therefor social mobility is limited for the working class.

Question 6

What is an evaluation for marxists arguing about specialised skills

Answer 6

• it can be too critical - overloooks those indiviudal who can overcome labelling due to class backrounds
  feminists would argue that marxists overloook gender inequality in social mobility
  Glass ceiling - you can see the job roles at the top but can’t physically get to them. Glass is stopping you from breaking through.

Question 7

What believe about meritocracy?

Answer 7

• not everyone has an equal chance
• the higher the peron’s class the more liley they will get better jobs and grades
• Meritocracy is a myth

Question 8

What is an AO2 for the myth of meritocracy?

Answer 8

• working calss students are diadvantges since 90% of OFSTED faling schools are in deprived areas.
  -poor OFSTED rating may lead to problems like recruiting the less speicalised teachers. So even if students work hard during lessons the lack of a specialised teacher may negativly impact on grades

Question 9

Who discuses the correspondance principle?

Answer 9

-Bowles and Gintis

Question 10

What is the correspondence principle?

Answer 10

• the way we learn things in school correspond/mirror the way we are expected to work
• achieveing through the hidden curriclum. Lessons which are taught to use but are not speicfically reffered to on the curriculum.

Question 11

State AO2’s for the correspondence principle?

Answer 11

• hierachy of authority among teachers
  -Alientation through student’s lack of control over education
  -Extrinstic satisfaction (rewards external to work itself) e.g from grades
  -Competition and division among students - to be in a higher stream

Question 12

Who argues about indoctrination?

Answer 12

• Althusser, Bowles and Gintis

Question 13

What is Indoctrination

Answer 13

• Pupils are brainwashed by the ruling class to be the ideal workers

Question 14

AO2 of Indoctrination

Answer 14

• Obedience - intervention session ‘exploit’ the time of students, presenting as helping students but in reality its helping the education industry to meet its targets (league tables)
  Passive - unquestioning inheret weakenss, problems with decion making in schools.
• students don’t see this exploitative nature as they are socalised to repsect authority
• false consciouness - benefits the system.

Question 15

What does Chomsky argue about indoctrination.

Answer 15

• that schools is a filtering system - the most compliant reach the top of politcs, buisness and media help protect the bourgeoisie, the less compliant are made to internalise failure and often end up in ‘dead end jobs’

Question 16

What is the Paul Willis study about?

Answer 16

-“learning to Labour” study 1977
-looked at 12 working class boys in the midlands - anti school subcultures and the role of the status.

Question 17

What is an evaluation of this concept that education is ‘brainwashing’ students to become the ideal workers in society?

Answer 17

• many students rebel from education as a secondary agent of socialisation.
• academic subjects encourage students to think critically about society
• students are expilcily taught about features of the hidden curriculum
  Bowels and Gintis’s reasearch is not representaive of all Western schools as it was carried out in a few American high schools in the 1970s.

Question 18

What are the strengths of Marxits.

Answer 18

• it exposes the myth of meritocracy and the udea of the concept to brainwash the exploited working class into accpeting their staus beacuse of their efforst and not the capitalist system.
• -Education is an ISA legitimising capitalism thorugh the formal and hidden curriclum
• Willis study has inspired follow-up reasearch examining the link betwen gender , ethinity and class inequality in schools

Question 19

What are the Weaknesses of the Marxist approach

Answer 19

• Marixits don’t agree on the way in which class inequality is achieved
• Bowles and Gintis take a top-down determinitistic view that pupils passively accept indoctrination
• Willis takes a botton -up social action view that some students rebel against the education system although still end up in working class jobs. Girls were absen in this reasearh
• Marxism takes a class-first appraoch to education ignoring other forms of ineqaulity based on gender, sexuality and ethnicity.