Evaluate the Marxist Perspective on the role of education.

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Evaluate the Marxist Perspective on the role of education.

        Marxist perspectives place stress upon the role the schools play in preparing children for their future working role in terms of both skill and values. The crucial factor is that Marxists see education as a means of exploitation of the population by the ruling class.

        Bowles and Gintis examine the values, which they claim underlie the subjects taught in schools. They suggest that the prime purpose is to produce a willing, subservient workforce, which will continue to help make profits for the ruling class and not challenge their dominance in society. In Schooling in Capitalist America, they argue two reasons for this. One reason is through the ‘hidden curriculum’ of schooling and the correspondence, or very close similarity, the between the social relationships at school and at work (long shadow of work). Secondly through the role of the education system in legitimising or justifying inequality.

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        Education serves the needs of a capitalist society divided into social classes and serves the needs of capitalism by socialising children into the dominant ideology, leading to an obedient workforce and the stability of capitalism. With the exception of a few individuals education confirms individuals’ class of origin as their class of destination. Education therefore contributes to the reproduction of present class inequalities between generations, and does not provide a means of upward social mobility for most people. Education legitimises social class inequality by persuading working-class individuals to accept that their lack of power and control at work and in ...

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