Marxists take a critical view of the role of education. Capitalist society is essentially a two-class system, with a ruling class exploiting the working class. Marxist see education as being run in the interests if the ruling class. For example, Althusser argues that education is an important ideological state apparatus that helps to control people’s ideas and beliefs. He suggests education has to purposes. It reproduces class inequalities through the generations by ensuring that most working-class pupils experience education failure. Education also legitimates this inequality, persuading the working class to accept educational and social inequalities. Other Marxists have also pointed to the existence of a hidden curriculum in schools.…
In their essays, both Anyon and Gatto's made a similar and critical argument that schools have been teaching an "invisible curriculum". In his essay "The seven-lesson school teacher", Gatto pointed out that the 12-year elementary education is no less than a jail sentence where "bad habits" (p.19) are the only curriculum have been learned (P.19). Anyon, in his "Social Class and The Hidden Curriculum of Work" also implied that there is a hidden curriculum being learned when students are only taught knowledge based on stereotypes of their schools' social economic status in order to perpetually maintain the social class differences.…
Jean Anyon in the source “From Social Class and The Hidden Curriculum of Work,” tries to explain first class education is only made obtainable to kids in a wealthier class. In her piece, Anyon claims “…knowledge and skills leading to social power and regard are made available to the advantage social groups but are withheld from the working classes...” She also makes an assertion that because schools in the wealthier areas are better behaved they get a better education. For example Anyon implies this when she says, “…students in different social class backgrounds are rewarded for classroom behavior.” She does not make it direct but as you read her essay on the matter it proves to be what she is suggesting. Her analysis and argument…
A social class background has a very powerful influence on a child’s chances of success in the education system. The children that are from a middle class background will normally perform better than the working class.…
The biggest factor as it dictates a child’s opportunities in the education system and the way that they are educated whether it be appropriately to their advantage or not. According to Anyon, the overall conclusion is that the “hidden curriculum” of school work sets children up to remain within their social class and thus perpetuates the maintenance of the status quo and the ongoing gap between rich and…
The neo-Marxist Althusser (1971) disagrees that the main function of the education is the transmission of common values. He thinks that education is an ideological state apparatus and its main function is to maintain, Legitimate and reproduce, generation by generation, class inequalities in wealth and power by transmitting capitalist values disguised as common values. Althusser also believes that ideology is done subconsciously through the hidden curriculum. He thinks that the way schools are organized and the way the curriculum is taught means that working-class people are encouraged to conform to the capitalist system and accept failure and inequality within their class.…
The schools that are in wealthy communities are better than those that are in the poor communities because they have better teaching methods and resources (Anyon 172). In the essay “ From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work, ” by Jean Anyon, he describes the difference between a “ working- class school” and an “ executive elite school”. The working-class school consists of parents that have blue-collar jobs such as, factory workers, pipe welders, and maintance workers (Anyon 170). These jobs do not require much skill other than following orders given by their employers. Students that attend this type of school are taught to follow the steps of procedures without any decision making because they are being tracked to follow the footsteps of their parents (Anyon 169). For example from the essay “ Class in America” by Gregory Mantsios, the profile of Cheryl Mitchell shows that she went to a large public school that was patrolled by security guards in Brooklyn, New York (Mantsois 309). She was taught basic skills and was conveyed the importance of doing everything under someone…
38. The hidden curriculum is the underlying cultural messages that schools teach to socialize young people into obedience and conformity.…
Secondly, education legitimises (justifies) class inequality by producing ideologies (sets of ideas and beliefs) that disguise its true cause. Education tries to convince people that inequality is inevitable and that failure is the fault of the individual, not the…
“Conflict theory shows how major patterns of inequality in society produce social stability in some circumstances and social change in orders” (Brym, Roberts, Strohschen, lie 2015:18). I would use conflict theory to explain women running for office in this campaign and why men are more than women in terms of election in different parties. Research and theory associated with studying gender issues propelled the sociology of gender from the margins to become a central feature of the discipline ( Why is it that there are more men involved in elections compare to women? Women have to be given the chance to compete in the election, showing sign of equality amongst men and women which is the fundamental principals of human rights and…
American society today is made up of all three of the theories. In my opinion, these theories all thrive off each other as a whole. I feel that the chain is something like this, Symbolic Interactionism, as well as Functionalism, lead into Conflict Theory. However, I feel that Conflict Theory is the largest component American society is made from, here is why!…
Many people in the world blame inequality in the world on race, religion or the amount of intelligence of a civilization, but that's not why. Inequality is simply caused by geography. Geography affects the way a civilization becomes more developed compared to others because, geography controls climate which affects the type of food a civilization can grow, and what type of animals it can domesticate. Domesticated animals and efficient crops give a civilization time to develop new ideas and invent tools that can help the dominate other cultures.…
Conflict theory is based entirely in power and how those in power do all they can to hold the majority of the population down and to keep them from gaining power, so as to secure their own position. Conflict theorists would say that obesity is a product of the living conditions, stress and poor quality of food and health education. Obesity is seen as deviant and problematic and therefore conflicts with the ideal society of being fit and thin. The more obese the less power and stature you have in society.…
Looking at education in the US from a social-conflict point of view, education is distributed very unequally among the social classes. Yes, all children in the United States have access to free education from kindergarten through twelfth grade, but not all schools are created equal. The teachers that are employed at grade schools in inner-city Chicago or extremely rural Kentucky are probably not the best in the nation in terms of quality as compared to the ones teaching in the Harvard suburbs. Kids that live in inner-city areas are going to have a very different education than those who live in upper-level communities. This will afford them less access to the opportunities they could gain from a good education. Kids from a lower social-economic status are more likely to have less access to a quality education. This is a very Marxist social-conflict theory. (Racial Stratification and Education in the United States: Why Inequality Persists. By: John. B Ugbu)…
Throughout history various governments have made it illegal to educate children privately or at home. Various totalitarian regimes, for example, have mandated indoctrination through propaganda in the Hitler Youth and propaganda in education under various communist regimes. Systems of schooling involve institutionalized teaching and learning in relation to a curriculum, which itself is established according to a predetermined purpose of the schools in the system. Schools systems were also based on people's religion giving them different curricula. In formal education, a curriculum is the set of courses and their content offered at a school or university. As an idea, curriculum stems from the Latin word for race course, referring to the course of deeds and experiences through which children grow to become mature adults. A curriculum is prescriptive, and is based on a more general syllabus which merely specifies what topics must be understood and to what level to achieve a particular grade or standard.…