Education

Marxism

Marxists take a conflict view of education and argue that it operates as an ideological tool. It works to prepare the young proletariats into accepting their subordinate position in society without question. Through school they learn the apparent importance and natural stateó» of hierarchy, believing that school operates as a meritocracy and that those who achieve the highest grades have achieved this through hard work, intelligence and perseverance. Education legitimises the exploitation meted out by the bourgeoisie.

As a starter activity, students could listen to the lyrics of Pink Floyd's Another Brick in the Wall and watch the accompanying video above. Students could think about the lyrics and images in the video and consider how it can link to the Marxist view of education.

After a class discussion of how aspects of the Marxist view can be seen in their own school/college (for example through the setting of pupils in GCSE exams which only allow them to achieve a grade C. Perhaps this has a knock-on effect to the subjects which can be chosen at A-level), students could begin to consider criticisms of the Marxist view.

The following suggestion could then be discussed. This is the idea of enrichment vouchers for disadvantaged pupils to gain access to high culture such as the theatre, ballet and exhibitions:

Discover More How to give bright but disadvantaged kids a leg up

Links can also be made to Bourdieus work on cultural capital - an overview of which can be found here:

Discover More Pierre Bourdieu developed the cultural deprivation theory





More Resources from Discovering Sociology


Functionalism

Some useful background reading for use as a flipped resource for the lesson can be found here:...

theory

Is Sociology a Science?

‘Is Sociology a Science?’ has been a popular past question for all major exam boar...

theory

Looking Glass Self

A key idea that contributed to the development of Symbolic Interactionism is the work of the S...

theory

Marxism

The lesson could begin by asking students to write down everything they think they already kno...

theory

Modernity

Slide two on the following presentation gives a good overview of key ideas in relation to mode...

theory

Postmodernism

Prior to the lesson, ask students to watch the following video and write down the key ideas as...

theory

Research Speed-Dating

The idea for a speed dating type session came from this blog post see link below:

theory

Symbolic Interactionism

This is a clear overview of a perspective students often find tricky; and in particular the tr...

theory

The Enlightenment

An important precursor to modernity was The Enlightenment. The Open University has a wide rang...

theory

Value Freedom

In 2009, the media extensively covered a debate as to whether the BBC should allow the BNP to ...

theory

Sociological Theory Introduction

theory