Dear Collegues
I am interested to know how different Marxist philosopher views the role of education in the society. I want to learn the differences between classical and neo Marxist views on education.
Could you provide me some guidelines to study philosophy?This is new field for me.
Thank you.
Regards
Krishna
Assess the Marxist View of the Role of Education in Society:-
According to Marxists, modern societies are Capitalist, and are structured along class-lines, and such societies are divided into two major classes – The Bourgeois elite who own and control the means of production who exploit the Proletariat by extracting surplus value from them. Traditional Marxists understand the role of education in this context – education is controlled by the elite class (The Bourgeoisie) and schools forms a central part of the superstructure through which they maintain ideological control of the proletariat.
- Firstly, Louis Altusser argued that state education formed part of the ‘ideological state apparatus’: the government and teachers control the masses by injecting millions of children with a set of ideas which keep people unaware of their exploitation and make them easy to control.According to Althusser, education operates as an ideological state apparatus in two ways; Firstly, it transmits a general ideology which states that capitalism is just and reasonable – the natural and fairest way of organising society, and portraying alternative systems as unnatural and irrational Secondly, schools encourage pupils to passively accept their future roles, as outlined in the next point…
- Secondly, the second function schools perform for Capitalism is that they produce a compliant and obedient workforce In ‘Schooling in Capitalist America’ (1976) Bowles and Gintis suggest that there is a correspondence between values learnt at school and the way in which the workplace operates. The values, they suggested, are taught through the ‘Hidden Curriculum’, which consists of those things that pupils learn through the experience of attending school rather than the main curriculum subjects taught at the school. So pupils learn those values that are necessary for them to tow the line in menial manual jobs.For example passive subservience of pupils to teachers corresponds to the passive subservience of workers to managers; acceptance of hierarchy (authority of teachers) corresponds to the authority of managers; and finally there is ‘motivation by external rewards: students are motivated by grades not learning which corresponds to being motivated by wages, not the joy of the job
Dear Krishna,
After reading Mohmed's answer, I think that he gave a succint answer to your question. So, I am much in agreement with him. I would only add to his answer the name of Lev Vygotsky. His social-cultural theory can be considered a Marxist view on development and education. So, you can profit from reading Vygotsky's main books.
Best regards,
Orlando
Dear Krishna
I agree with much that the earlier respondents said. I would add that bourgeois ideas fail to dominate completely because capitalist reality is contradictory (dialectical) and experiencing these contradictions allows us to begin to question this reality. Experience of these contradictions is heightened if one attempts to change social reality through struggle, hence Marx's statement about philosophers simply analysing the world when the point is to change it. In terms of education what is important and dangerous to capitalism is teaching workers to think and critique reality. In this context I would encourage teaching to follow Socrates in presenting learning in the form of a debate between at least two viewpoints through which a deeper, enriched of reality can emerge. Best regards Bob
Dear Krishna,
After such advanced answer from above I would only humbly suggest to take into consideration Bourdieu's conception of education as reproduction of social order and hierarchies in
La reproduction éléments pour une théorie du système d'enseignement
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