Marxist perspective on Education (3) Flashcards
(20 cards)
Althusser: How does the education system reproduce social inequality?
- Education engineers:
M/C -> success
W/C -> failure - private schooling prepares the elite for the position of power.
- hidden curriculum -> shaped to support M/C.
Althusser: How does the edu. system legitimise social inequality?
- M/C has more cultural + economic capital -> gives an advantage to schools.
-Hidden curriculum leads to blind acceptance of Capitalist values.
Althusser: How the edu. system reproduces + legitimises social inequality?
Giroux:
W/C not passive puppets of hidden curriculum
} proven by anti-school subcultures.
Morrow + Torres:
edu. system reproduces diversity rather than ineqaulity.
What are the 2 processes involved in reproduction of labour power?
REPRODUCTION:
-of skills: necessary for an efficient labour force.
-of ruling class ideology.
What does Althusser argue?
- no one can hold power for any length of time by the use of force.
ISA: ideological state apparatus:
- includes:
mass media, the law, religion + education.
-transmit ruling class ideology
} creates false class consciousness.
- pre-capitalist society: church (main ISA)
- Capitalist society- Education.
RSA: Repressive state apparatus:
- keeps proletariat in place.
-includes:
the army, police, prison system.
} based on force
Althusser sees RSA as more obvious + less effective than ISA
Evaluation of Althusser:
- admits himself he presents a very general; framework.
- provides very little evidence.
- has been criticised for presenting members of society as “cultural dopes”.
Bowles + Gintis: How does education maintain capitalism?
- Correspondence principal:
schools mirror the world of work in order to prepare students.
-myth of meritocracy:
belief that you have to work hard to achieve educational, social + economical success.
B + G: How do they see the role of edu. in capitalist society?
- reproduction of labour power.
What does the edu. system do it by?
- forms of consciouness, interpersonal behaviour + personality it reinforces in students.
} hidden curriculum.
What is B + G theory known as?
- correspondence theory.
What do B + G see in the correspondence theory?
- see a close correspondence in social relationships in work place + edu. system.
What does correspondence produce?
- hard work, obedience, motivation required by capitalism.
Submission to authority:
- schools organised on hierarchical principles of authority + control.
i.e: teachers give orders, students obey. - prepares students for relationships within the workplace where they have to accept the authority of managers.
External rewards:
- Students are motivated by external rewards.
i.e: examination success + promise of employment. - workers motivated by wages rather than work itself.
} reflects on alienation from work in later life.
Legitimising Inequality:
- Capitalism to operate efficiently:
inequalities must be seen as legitimate + just.
-B+G argue: “it’s essential that individuals accept, and come to see as natural, those undemocratic + unequal aspects of the workaday world.”
Education legitimises inequality:
- schools provide fair + open competition.
- talents + abilities graded, developed + certificated.
- meritocracy.
Economic System:
- highest qualification = highest rewards.
- B+G reject view that rewards in edu. + economic system based on merit.
-children of wealthy + powerful -> highest qualifications + rewarded jobs.
Evaluation of Bowles + Gintis:
- too deterministic
} edu. determined by economy
} ignores the effects of other aspects of society. - too much emphasis on capitalism.
-ignored resistance in schools + in wider society to type of edu. they described.
