The Marxist Perspective on Education Marxists such as Louis Althusser, Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis refute the Functionalist view that industrial capitalist societies are meritocracies and that every ones' position in society is based on talent and hard work. They suggest ideas for why this is the case. Althusser bases his theory around the idea of education being an ideological state apparatus. Bowles and Gintis' theory is based on the 'long shadow of work' and the legitimation of inequality. When speaking of the 'long shadow of work', Bowles and Gintis are referring to the strong relationship between social relationships at school and at work - they believe this helps education to play it's major role in reproducing a labour force with hardworking, disciplined workers. Educations does this through the hidden curriculum and the correspondence theory. The hidden curriculum relates to many features of the workplace. An example of this would be that in school the hidden curriculum teaches students to abide by rules and...
As in the story: "Bodega Dreams" by Ernesto Quinonez, students of Julia de Burgos school were abused psychologically by a bad teacher named Blessington, which belittled and humiliated his telling students that would end in jail or as prostitutes; in the same way, the lack of pedagogy of these so-called teachers, contribute to the impoverishment of our educational system. For decades, it has been supposed that education is related to socioeconomic status determined by the level of income. It is common to hear, if you are rich, so it has can be an excellent education. This thought is deep within us and it could be very difficult to think in another way. With this we can deduce that any financial
However, according to Samuel Smiles, it is the laziness of the working class and the poor that put them in that position. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels adamantly disagree. There is a different underlying thought in each idea that the authors rely upon for their argument. For Smiles, it is the idea that everyone has all the opportunities in the world and that nothing is holding them back from great success but themselves.
In order to understand Hay’s article, it is important to have a basic understanding of the fundamentals of Marxism – this will provide the necessary context to identify and understand the Marxist perspective in the article. Marxism is a political philosophy which focuses on social class and conflict as one of its main ideas. This is where one political class (the
In 1979 Jean Anyon wrote “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” suggesting that schools from
Anyon supports this claim of a “hidden curriculum” in her essay, Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of work. She states that, “The ‘hidden curriculum’ of school work is tacit preparation for relating to the process of production in a particular way” (89-90). Anyon shows that there is a parallel between the “hidden curriculum” and the workplace. I would like to clarify what by relating my own experiences in school to the “hidden curriculum”. Every year in at least one of my classes, I had a teacher who pushed me educationally. I had someone who personally took the extra time and wanted to see me succeed. Even though it was not written in the curriculum to push me harder than the other students, they did it; they had a “hidden curriculum.” Now imagine this scenario for an entire school despite the fact that their curriculum might be the same as the one my school used. My teachers went above and beyond what they had to do in order to give students the tools they needed to be successful both in the K-12 and post-secondary school
The United States of America has been touted as the land of opportunity. The American dream was the reason many immigrants moved to this nation, all hoping to rise from rags to riches. Although likely at some point, the current situation exudes a different result. The problem in the United States is that there is a class divide that gives advantage to those who already have sufficient lifestyles over those who constantly face adversity. This situation causes a loop where the children of the educated get educated while those without are never given the opportunity to receive.
There is always at least one odd duck, which stands out from the crowd. The same is true when it comes to politics. One of the most controversial political ideas to ever come to power, is communism. Branching from the socialist party, in 1848, extremist Karl Marx expressed his theories in The Communist Manifesto. This is a text that is still debated today. In an article in the Journal of Social Society, William Niemi wrote about Marx’s ideas still present today. “The rethinking about Karl Marx and Marxism continues some 20 years after the fall of the Soviet dictatorship and its satellites.” (Niemi). Within this volume of ideas, Marx expressed many highly debated topics, the most controversial of course, being communism itself. Though many of
Marxism is a method of analysis based around the concepts developed by the two German philosophers Karl Marx and Fredrich Engel, centered around the complexities of social-relations and a class-based society. Together, they collaborated their theories to produce such works as The German Ideology (1846) and The Communist Manifesto (1848), and developed the terms ‘’proletariat’ and ’bourgeois’ to describe the working-class and the wealthy, segmenting the difference between their respective social classes. As a result of the apparent differences, Marxism states that proletariats and bourgeoisie are in constant class struggle, working against each other to amount in a gain for themselves.
Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World demonstrates key principles of Marxist literary theory by creating a world where mass happiness is the tool used by positions of power known as the Alphas to control the masses known as the Epsilons at the cost of the people's freedom to choose. The social castes of Brave New World, Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons, draw parallels to the castes applied in Marxist literary theory, the Aristocracy, the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat.
Universities are using Neoliberal approaches to make their school more appealing to high school graduates, enroll more students to their school, as well as to educate the students until graduate. These methods are doing more harm than good to the student’s career and the image of the education system. These neoliberal methods have led many graduates believing that in applying to University’s they will receive a higher education and specialization that will give their careers the edge needed to ‘shine’ above the rest. Some like Carolyn Abraham, an author for MacLean’s magazine, believe that a college or university degree is a smart choice for high school graduates to apply to (2015). This is seen in her article Why colleges are increasingly
Some people may believe that education all over the United States is equal. These people also believe that all students no matter their location, socioeconomic status, and race have the same access and quality of education, but ultimately they are wrong. Throughout history, there has been a huge educational disparity between the wealthy and marginalized communities. The academic essay “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Jean Anyon, an American critical thinker and researcher in education, conveys that depending on the different economic backgrounds students have, they will be taught in a specific way. He reveals that the lower economic background a child has then the lower quality their education will be and the higher their economic background is the higher quality their education is. Anyon’s theory of a social ladder is extremely useful because it sheds light on the
Aldous Huxley’s novel takes place in London in a world where humans are developed through tubes, put into social categories, and conditioned to feel and go through the same experiences. The members of this society are forced to learn these habits at a young age and continue them until death. A drug called “soma” exists to serve as a relaxer if they ever feel an emotion other than happiness. Many characters are introduced in this novel, including a “savage” who disagrees with the ideology of the world and rebels against all that they stand for. The novel, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, reveals throughout the novel that because of the caste system, people are treated different, given various duties, and are placed on a spectrum; all for the purpose of maintaining the stability of the society.
For Karl Marx human nature is a reflection of the society that they are a part of. It’s a product of the influencing relationships between a human’s consciousness (their psychology), the material world, and society. These three things produce our nature within society, but we also have a basic species nature. Our basic nature, or our species nature, is more important to Marx than our individual nature. Marx’s belief of our nature leads him to believe that communism is the most beneficial society for us to exist in.
Politics and many aspects of society today have been heavily influenced by political thinkers and scholars from ages before our time. Whether their ideas were implemented or avoided, society today has learned and grown from these influenced; there has been societal adaptions and changes with every success and failure. One important philosopher that is still widely talked about today is Karl Marx. His theories and ideas are still studies, discussed and utilized today. Some aspects of Marxism is relevant to modern day but there are still some major critiques to his opinions that prove there in inconsistencies with the relevance of Marxism. This is a result of his failure to predict how advanced and revolutionized society would be in modern day.
There is no one single definition for what education really is. Experts and scholars from the beginning have viewed and commented about education in different ways. The definition mostly agreed upon was that education is an acquisition or passing of skills, behavior or knowledge from an institution to another. This institution can either be a person, a school, a family or even the society. If we go in the ancient meaning and the ideology of education, it means to lead out of ignorance. In other words, education or knowledge in this sense was light and education brought the person out of the dark. The purpose and ideology of education is therefore to bring out the potential of a person and pass on knowledge