Marxism + Feminism

Question 1

Bowles and Gintis: Myth of Meritocracy (M)

Answer 1

• Schools convince students that education is meritocratic
• Education is not fair and students do not have equal chances
• Achievement based on social class, not effort or hard work
• WC more likely to fail because they are disadvantaged (no quiet space to study at home, cannot afford tutors for weaker subjects)
• Want WC students to believe that education is fair and meritocratic so they will not challenge capitalism, reproducing social class inequalities

AO3 - Functionalists - equality of opportunity

Question 2

Bowles and Gintis: The Hidden Curriculum (M)

Answer 2

• Refers to things that are taught informally and are not officially part of the formal curriculum - things not taught in lessons (being obedient, making friends)
• Argue this helps to prepare WC students for boring, low paid, low status jobs
• Example: learning to be obedient so you are ready to do as you are instructed in the workplace

AO3 - Functionalists - taught values that benefit everyone (competition, working hard - support society running smoothly)

Question 3

Bowles and Gintis: The Correspondence Principle (M)

Answer 3

• Schools mirrors the workplace
• Prepare students for their future roles at work - WC prepare for low paid, low status jobs whilst the MC prepare for high paid, high status jobs
• Example: respect authority and obey them (teachers, boss), school and work uniform

AO3 - Postmodernists: schools do not churn out mindless, obedient workers, there now exists a postmodern society which requires students to learn a wider range of skills to work on high level, specialised goods - education reproduces diversity, not inequality

Question 4

Bourdieu: MC Habitus (M)

Answer 4

• Main role of education is to reproduce the class structure
• Believes each social class has a habitus (own culture and set of ideas that influence tastes and choice)
• Dominant class (MC) have the power to impose their own habitus on the education system - means educational knowledge in not the culture of society but MC knowledge
• Education has an MC habitus - MC students at an advantage, have been socialised with MC values and ideas, able to gain status and recognition from the school (symbolic capital)
• WC habitus viewed as inferior, experience symbolic violence, culture is devalued and they are forced to learn MC knowledge and values - feel uncomfortable at school, believe education is not for them
• Reproduces the class structure, WC kept in their place, don’t apply to University, remain in low paid, low status jobs

Question 5

Althusser: Ideological State Apparatus (M)

Answer 5

• Education is part of the ISA (social institutions which spread RC ideology)
• Schools persuade students to accepts Capitalist values and beliefs (reward for hard work and obeying authority)
• Students kept in a state of false class consciousness (FCC), brainwashed into thinking capitalism is fair and meritocratic
• WC students will blame themselves for their own failures (a lack of effort or ability) rather than their social class backgrounds, WC children face material deprivation

Question 6

Willis: The Lads (M)

Answer 6

• Argues students are not brainwashed into being obedient workers - some rebel
• Studied 12 WC boys who formed an anti-school subculture (follow values that go against the school’s values)
• Rejected school, truanted, did not do homework, disrupted class
• Their rejection of school meant they ended up in low paid, low status jobs due to failing exams - still ended up exploited by the RC

Question 7

Feminism: Male Gaze

Answer 7

• Male teachers and boys look girls up and down
• Make judgements about a girl’s appearance
• Girls believe it is normal to look good for men, keep them subordinate to them
• Radical Feminists - argue the male gaze reproduces and justifies the objectification of women (women are sexual objects for male pleasure)

Question 8

Feminism: A Level Physics Remains Male-Dominated

Answer 8

• Lack of girls who study A Level Physics
• They are discouraged, believe they need a ‘boys brain’ and that only boys are naturally good at physics
• Leads to men dominating high status, well paid jobs that require physics e.g. engineering

Question 9

Feminism: School Leadership is Male-Dominated

Answer 9

• Majority of head teachers are male whilst most teachers are female
• Encourages the idea that men are the people in charge

Question 10

Feminism: Uniform Polices on Skirt Length

Answer 10

• Some schools place girls in isolation due to their skirts being too short - have to be at the knee or it is seen as inappropriate and distracting