MARXISTS ON EDUCATION
Althusser: Education as an ISA - 2 functions:
o The ideological state apparatuses maintain
the rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling
people ideas, values and beliefs. ISA’s include
religion, the media and the education system.
o The education system is the most important
ISA. It performs two functions :
Education reproduces class inequality by transmitting it
from generation to generation, by failing each
successive generation of WC pupils in turn
Education legitimises class inequality by producing
ideologies that disguise its true cause. The function of
ideology is to persuade workers to accept that
inequality is inevitable and they deserve their position
in society. If they accept that they are less likely to
rebel.
o EVALUATION
Evidence that pupils don’t necessarily
accept values - deterministic - e.g Willis
Bowles and Gintis: Schooling in Capitalist America
, o Study of 237 New York high school students
o Schools reward precisely the kind of
personality traits that make for a submissive,
compliant worker
o E.g. students who showed independence and
creativity tended to gain low grades, while
those who showed characteristics linked to
obedience and discipline tended to gain high
grades
o Schooling helps to produce the obedient
workers that capitalism needs
The Correspondence Principle and The Hidden
Curriculum (B&G)
o Close parallels between schooling and work in
capitalist society
o E.g. both schools and workplaces are
hierarchies
o Operates through the hidden curriculum - the
‘lessons’ that are learnt in school without
being directly taught
Althusser: Education as an ISA - 2 functions:
o The ideological state apparatuses maintain
the rule of the bourgeoisie by controlling
people ideas, values and beliefs. ISA’s include
religion, the media and the education system.
o The education system is the most important
ISA. It performs two functions :
Education reproduces class inequality by transmitting it
from generation to generation, by failing each
successive generation of WC pupils in turn
Education legitimises class inequality by producing
ideologies that disguise its true cause. The function of
ideology is to persuade workers to accept that
inequality is inevitable and they deserve their position
in society. If they accept that they are less likely to
rebel.
o EVALUATION
Evidence that pupils don’t necessarily
accept values - deterministic - e.g Willis
Bowles and Gintis: Schooling in Capitalist America
, o Study of 237 New York high school students
o Schools reward precisely the kind of
personality traits that make for a submissive,
compliant worker
o E.g. students who showed independence and
creativity tended to gain low grades, while
those who showed characteristics linked to
obedience and discipline tended to gain high
grades
o Schooling helps to produce the obedient
workers that capitalism needs
The Correspondence Principle and The Hidden
Curriculum (B&G)
o Close parallels between schooling and work in
capitalist society
o E.g. both schools and workplaces are
hierarchies
o Operates through the hidden curriculum - the
‘lessons’ that are learnt in school without
being directly taught
