Marxist View of Education (AQA GCSE Sociology)

Marxist views of education

• Unlike functionalists, Marxists take a critical view of the role of education in society

• Functionalists see society and education as based on value consensus, whereas Marxists see it as based on class division and capitalist exploitation because ruling-class values (such as competition) are taught rather than shared values

• Marxists believe that the education system:

  • ensures that working-class students are less likely to achieve good qualifications compared to students from dominant groups

  • reproduces the existing social class structure

  • prepares working-class students for their lower position in a capitalist society, where they learn to accept hierarchy and obey rules

Key thinker: Bowles and Gintis (1976) ideas on education

• American Marxists Bowles and Gintis carried out primary research on 237 New York high school students using education surveys

• They also used secondary sources by drawing upon existing sociological and economic theories

• They found that:

  • schools rewarded students with characteristics such as being hard-working, disciplined, obedient and unquestioning of authority

  • students demonstrating greater independence and creative thinking were more likely to gain lower grades

  • schools were producing an unimaginative and unquestioning workforce susceptible to alienation and exploitation

• They concluded that the key role of the education system was to create and reproduce an obedience workforce that capitalism needs and this is reflected in how schooling is structured and the hidden curriculum

The correspondence principle

• Bowles and Gintis used the term correspondence principle to describe the way education and the workplace mirror or correspond with one another:

The myth of meritocracy

• Unlike functionalists, Bowles and Gintis do not believe the education system is meritocratic

  • We are led to believe that it treats people fairly and equally so that people don't question the system

  • Universalistic standards are not applied equally and individual status is decided by social class, not intelligence or educational achievement

  • The education system disguises the fact that social class is the main factor affecting someone's income and causes us to believe that those with the highest incomes are deserving of their position

Criticisms of Bowles and Gintis

• They assume that students have no free will and passively accept the values taught via the hidden curriculum, but many students reject the values of the school and resist authority figures

• Bowles & Gintis' research may only apply to the 1970s, as today modern businesses require creative, independent workers capable of taking on responsibility and developing new ideas rather than passive, docile workers

• Many teaching methods encourage creativity rather than rote learning, thus preparing young people for success in a modern economy, although critics argue that it continues to correspond with the workplaces of a different era and no longer prepares people for the modern workplace

• Willis argues that, unlike Bowles and Gintis, education is not a particularly successful agency of socialisation, and it can have unintended consequences that may not be beneficial to capitalism

• Feminists argue that Bowles and Gintis ignore the fact that schools reproduce not only capitalism but patriarchy too