Identify and explain three ways in which, according to Marxism, the education system is said to "mirror" the workplace.
Delovan Ghafoor
Identify and explain three ways in which, according to Marxism, the education system is said to “mirror” the workplace. (12marks)
Marxists claim that the education system “mirrors” the workplace. The school disciplines students to the demands of work. They teach them things self presentation,
self-image and most importantly social class identification. This is to ensure that they are prepared for the working world. If someone has low self esteem at school they will probably be low-paid and will have a low status in the workplace. The relationships people form with one another in school also replicates the relationships that are formed at work. At school everyone is arranged in a hierarchy or importance. The head teacher has the most authority over anyone else in the school. At a workplace the manager has the most power over anyone else in the organisation. Teachers have authority over the students and older students are superior to younger ones. This is exactly like the workplace where head of departments have authority over workers with a lower status. Another major similarity is that the education of a boy is seen as more important than the education of a girl. This is replicated when a male worker is paid more and even respected more than a woman in a place of work. Even the basic things mirror the workplace; vocational and academic subjects mirror manual and non-manual work.
