Marx, a revolutionary sociologist and philosopher who dealt with the sociological issues such as class struggle and capitalism has much to contribute his ideologies on education. Though Marx did not express his views on education directly in his works, his views on education can be interpreted from his works on class struggles and other sociological areas and which are very much sensible in the contemporary educational scenario. The following paragraphs will be discussing some of the Marxian views on education like ‘reproduction of social classes’, ‘social alienation’, ‘ commodification of knowledge’, ‘division of physical and mental labor’, etc., especially based on his classical theory.
Education and reproduction of social classes
Marx sees, education being a social institution reflects and causes in reproduction of social classes. Education helps segregating people and it promotes a meritocratic system as it is a common practice that doctor’s son becomes a doctor and a middle class family kid ended up in doing some laborious work. On one hand we state that education brings progress in human life by uplifting all classes and the other side we can see the ‘social heredity’ being perpetuated. Even in America, one of the pioneers of having the benefit of democracy, maintained class system in education by segregating Blacks from being educated in schools till 1956.
Education causes Social alienation
According to Marx, education causes experiences of “alienation”. Marx had discussed alienation in his works when he talked about labor struggles. As labors being alienated from the process of production, Marx sees, and students are also alienated in the educational process. It is quite convincing that we see most of the children are being disconnected or separated among their subjects and areas of study based on their career. They are alienated from the world of adults too. Even in their class room some children have to face “intellectual alienation” by studying different subjects within a stipulated time. In the school system, teachers too being a subject to alienation. More and more specialization in studies and careers brought the result of alienation in education and it produces “alienated people” around the world. During the industrial revolution, for bourgeois, division of labor was good for their part to increase the efficiency of production. In the present context of educational system, we can see that all the stake holders of education process justify ’alienation’ in order to achieve high standards of social status and careers. One must be able to connect the Marxian views on alienation of labor with the alienation in education.
Commodification of Education
As Marx observes dominant social relation (capitalism) is oriented towards “commodification”, education will also be a subject to the process in which the entire educational system becomes a commodity. Rephrasing Marxian concept in the present context, one can see that education is very much commercialized. When we deeply observe the current trends, certain words and phrases used are good example for commodification of education like, “ invest “ in your education, coaching centers, “ want to be an engineer join us today” , “ encash your information “ etc., are some of the advertisement captions of educational institutions which strike my mind. Students are being ‘delivered’ (just like pizza being delivered) heaps of knowledge and information according to the current “market” needs. It has become a trend that education has been packetized just as a commodity for sale and consumption.
Division between physical and mental labor
Marx perceives that education would cause to create the division between “physical and mental labor”. Though it seems to be, he is a little cynical about the smooth functioning of social order, it is a prevalent common practice that after the education, people are divided on the basis of their education. It is very rare to see a doctor’s son to be a farmer rather than ending up as a doctor or some other mental related works and in reverse too, a labor’s son more likely to be ending up in some physical related works. As he observed earlier, education “reproduces” social classes. It alienates people.
Critique on Marx
For Marx, society is basically controlled and shaped by the relation of production. There is no wonder one could think of that, why Marx observed education with a critical eye of “production”. Every theory is limited and incomplete. There are gaps and holes to be filled and rectified. Since it is the necessity of any theory, Marx too has no exception. There are critiques about Marx on his ideas of society, social classes. He didn’t make an attempt to deal with the holistic axes of humanity apart from “the power”. He didn’t deal with the systems like ‘race, gender, ethnicity, cast’ etc. Interpreting Marx in this present educational context wouldn’t be an integrated way of approaching education because he did no effort dealing those issues, but his views on education will have a predominant space in the world.
Reference: Marxian Perspectives on Educational Philosophy: From Classical Marxism to Critical Pedagogy by Douglas Kellner
