Contemporary Theories in the Sociology of Education

181 Pages·1981·16.792 MB·English

by  Jack Demaine (auth.)

CONTEMPORAR Y THEORIES IN THE SOCIOLOGY
OF EDUCATION
CONTEMPORARY
THEORIES IN
THE SOCIOLOGY OF
EDUCATION
Jack Demaine
M
© Jack Demaine 1981
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First edition 1981
Reprinted 1982, 1983
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Demaine, Jack
Contemporary theories in the sociology of
education
1. Educational sociology
1. Title
301.5'6 LC191
ISBN 978-0-333-23449-5 ISBN 978-1-349-16519-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-16519-3
The paperback edition of this book is sold subject to the
condition that it shall not, by way of trade or othewise, be lent,
resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's
prior consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that
in which it is published and without a similar condition including
this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
TO MY PARENTS
Contents
Acknowledgements IX
Introduction 1
1. Concepts in Sociology of Education 14
2. Radicalism and the New Sociology of Education 47
3. Marxism, Ideology and Sociology of Education 65
4. Libertarianism and Sociology of Education 92
5. The 'Political Economy' of Education in the work of Bowles and
Gintis 99
6. Conclusion: Education and the Left in Britain 123
Notes 153
Bibliography 161
Index 169
List of Tables
1.1 Distribution of personal income 32
6.1 Hypothetical composition of future governing bodies 142
Figure
I. I Distribution of personal wealth in Great Britain on
alternative bases; 1972 34
VlIl
Acknowledgements
I should like to thank all those who have contributed to this book through
their criticism and comment. They are too numerous to mention by name
but I am nonetheless grateful to them all. I would like especially to thank
Lorraine Culley and Barry Hindess who both read the manuscript in full and
made extremely helpful suggestions.
I am grateful to the Editors of Economy and Society and to the publishers,
Messrs Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, for permission to reproduce parts of a
paper first published in Volume 6, Number 2 of that journal. I am also
grateful to the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office for permission
to reproduce the tables from the Diamond Report and the Taylor Report.
IX
Introduction
In recent years sociology of education has been transformed and the state of
theoretical debate invigorated by the influx of Marxist, neo-Marxist and
radical theories and concepts. This book distinguishes between these theories
and concepts and examines their influence. The book examines the
'traditional' as well as the 'new' sociology of education and goes on to
examine attempts to develop a 'Marxist sociology of education'.
The book examines and criticizes the so-called New Directions for the
sociology of education proposed by Michael F. D. Young, Louis Althusser's
elaboration of the concept of the educational ideological state apparatus, and
Bowles and Gintis' attempt to establish a 'political economy' of education.
There is an extended examination and criticism of Parson ian concepts which
appear in the traditional sociology and a critique of influential aspects of the
work of Emile Durkheim and Basil Bernstein. The chapter on Marxist
sociology of education includes a critique of the theoretical concepts at work
in Paulo Freire's discourse on education and in the following chapter there is
a critique of the allegedly radical alternatives for education proposed by Ivan
Illich.
The objective of the book is to demonstrate the serious theoretical
limitations of these and other similar approaches and to examine the
consequences for pedagogic practice entailed in the implementation of
policies based on such theories. Finally, in chapter 6 there is an assessment of
the current state of sociology of education and a discussion of the
contemporary debate on education in Britain with specific reference to the
educational politics of the Left.
(i) MARXIST THEOR Y AND SOCIOLOGY OF EDVCA TION
There has, in recent years, been considerable theoretical interest in the
development of a Marxist sociology of education. The fact that the founders
of Marxism (Marx and Engels) and the major exponent of Marxism in the
twentieth century (Lenin) had little to say on the subject is not in itself a
serious obstacle to such a development because there are other Marxists who
1
2 Contemporary Theories in the Sociology of Education
have written on education, and there are Marxist concepts which might be
brought to work in educational theory. The most serious attempt in recent
years to advance Marxist theory beyond the works of Marx, Engels and
Lenin, that of the French philosopher Louis Althusser, includes an attempt to
extend Marxist theory to educational theory. On the other hand, in Britain,
Maurice Levitas' Marxist Perspectives in the Sociology of Education attempts to
combine certain of Marx and Engels' asides and comments on education
(Lenin seems to have slipped his notice) with sociological concepts. Despite
his explicit hostility to some sociology the results owe much to sociology and
in particular to a speculative philosophical anthropology.
A Marxist sociology of education which utilizes Marx and Engels' asides
on education faces an issue which is also prevalent in Lenin's comments and
speeches on education. For these writers, satisfactory education for the
working people is not possible in bourgeois capitalist society. On the other
hand, education is considered to be of considerable importance in the
transition to socialism. This apparent paradox has led to considerable
problems for Marxist, neo-Marxist and radical theories of education. Of
course, there is no paradox for classical Marxism because the transition to
socialism presupposes revolution; the seizure and transformation of the
bourgeois state and the transformation of capitalist economies to socialist
economies. Let us examine Lenin's arguments on education by way of
illustration.
In his speech 1 at the First All-Russian Congress on Education (28 August
19 I 8) Lenin argued that 'the more cultured the bourgeois state, the more
subtly it lied when declaring that schools could stand above politics and serve
society as a whole. In fact the schools were turned into nothing but an
instrument of the class rule of the bourgeoisie. They were thoroughly
imbued with the bourgeois caste spirit.' The revolution means that
'education is one of the component parts of the struggle we are now
waging'. Here education is political in the sense that it is imbued with caste
spirit and schools are an instrument of the ruling class. Lenin's opposition to
schooling is an opposition to its bourgeois class basis and ideology. Lenin is
not opposed to education as such.
Lenin's position is not that education is to be opposed because it is
necessarily political in character but rather that politics presupposes education.
The political ideology or 'caste spirit' of the bourgeoisie does not exist in
isolation from the instruments in which it is imbued. Lenin's arguments (in
192 I) are consistent with this position and, with respect to the objectives of
socialism, he again. argues that political thought and political action
presuppose education.
In admonishing the members of the Political Education Departments for