marxist approach to education Flashcards
What do Marxists say about society in regards to the proletariat and the bourgeoisie?
Everything in society is done to oppress the proletariat and to enable to bourgeoisie to excel and benefit from society.
What is the role of education according to Marxists?
Education in a capitalist society reinforces the reproduction of an effective workforce.
Education is about being able to provide a workforce for the bourgeoisie; they want to give people the bare minimum in order to form a workforce, instead of giving them a proper education.
What did Althusser (1971) say?
Education equals the Ideological State Apparatus (ISA). He argues that education is used to push the state’s (government’s) ideas. He is saying that if you don’t work hard, then you won’t get far in life. The government gives us the idea that education makes us better.
What is meant by the reproduction of the necessary technical skills?
Education is trying to make sure that the technical skills which enable people to go into working class jobs are given and provided.
The education system produces students that are able to fulfil the jobs needed in society.
What is the Ideological State Apparatus (ISA)?
Maintain bourgeoisie rule by controlling people’s ideas, values and beliefs e.g. religion, media and education system.
What is the Repressive State Apparatus (RSA)?
Maintain bourgeoisie rule through force or the threat of force e.g. police, courts and army. When necessary they will use physical force to repress the proletariat.
In relation to the ISA and the RSA, what is the education system teaching people?
Education teaches people to conform and obey authority.
Give an exmaple of the widening gap of inequality in education.
Covid19 - Working class families may not have been able to afford computers and resources to work from home and therefore were not able to continue their education to the high standard that others could.
According to Althusser, what two functions does the education system perform?
- Reproduce class inequality - transmit inequality from generation to generation by failing all working-class children; creating a cycle.
- Legitimise class inequality - Justify inequality by producing ideologies that disguise its true cause.
What is the definition of ‘hegemony’?
The dominance of one particular group over another.
For example, the bourgeoisie hold hegemonic control over the proletariat.
What does it mean for an individual to be marginalised?
Pushed aside/forced out of subculture.
What is the formal curriculum?
Tmetabled and specific subjects that are taught directly.
What is the hidden curriculum?
Particular skills/practices taught in education, but are not under time tabled subjects (getting to school on time, following the dress code, not calling teachers by their first name, boys and girls using separate toilets (gender roles), the break and lunch bell at a specific time).
Give three points that Bowles and Gintis made in regards to schooling in capitalist America.
- Schools reward precisely the kind of personality traits that make for a submissive, compliant worker.
- Both schools and workplaces are hierarchies.
- Bowles and Gintis refer to the parallels between school and workplace as examples of the ‘correspondence principle’. The relationships and structures found in education mirror or correspond to those of work.
What does Phil Cohen (1984) say in regards to youth training schemes?
Youth training schemes serve capitalism by teaching young workers not genuine job skills, but rather the attitudes and values needed in a subordinate labour force. It lowers their aspirations so that they will accept low paid work.
