Marxist Perspective Of Education And Its Impact On Society

Forms of Education Delivery

Question:

How the concepts of 'marketization of education', 'commodification of education', 'commodity fetishism' and 'primitive accumulation' are applied both to education in general and to your own professional context (link the concepts generally to education and use examples from your own professional context).
 

There are a number of way through which education might be delivered i.e. through the training, teaching, storytelling and discussion.  The dissemination of education can be made in a formal and informal setting. Thus, any type of experience through education having a formative way of thinking, acting and feeling will be considered as education. When looking into the Marxist perspective of education, the traditional Marxist they see that the educational system to be working in the interest of the ruling class (Berlin, 2013). There are three types of functions that are performed by education for the elite class. It helps in reproducing the class inequality, legitimates class inequality and information technology works in favour of the capitalist employers. In this assignment, we link the concepts of Marx to that of education and the professional context

Marketization of education: Educational marketing is considered to be epidemic. The principles and the practices suffuse the administration and approach of the higher education so that the schools they are branded and gets more competitive. This is taking place recklessly with no significance of the challenges and the cost that is incurred by the educators, students and the society with the pursuing of the model with a lot of conflict (Prawer, 2014). The focus is primarily on the raising the level of the critical thinking of the students rather than degrees specification on the type of job.

Commodification of Education:   The corporate entities have taken up the initiative of education as the public funds are diminishing significantly while there is also a greater importance of knowledge in the education industry (Veblen, 2015). There has been a considerable amount of tension emerging in between companies and universities. There are however the means, method and incentive for lowering the levels of tension. An economy that is knowledge based can establish the qualification and the degrees as form of commoditizing the resource. The lack of the infrastructure with pre existence political and infrastructure by the university will be making the university as centres of delivery of information rather than educating the students.

Commodity Fetishism:  The commodity fetishism by Marx helps in interpreting commodity as commodity with magical qualities. As per Marx, commodity is a very simple but it gains importance with the increase in the use value. Education is treated as a commodity. The effectiveness of the commodity is realised when the learners, which help in the economic growth of the country, consume it (Kitching, 2015). In a capitalist form of society, they treat values are already inherited in the commodity. The person who manufactures or builds the commodity is no longer visible to the ultimate consumer.  The concept of primitive accumulation of Marx helps in considering the transformations of the representation of higher education that goes along with that of education and is a consequence of disposition. This would be affecting the service of education and the ones who are the providers of the service. For example, University of Ghimwall is a prestigious institute is the United Kingdom.  The payment of the tuition fee is based on the CATS. There is a commercial relationship of student and the department. If there is a module undertaken in the other department, the fees is paid to the other department from the base fee of the previous department. The neo liberal discourse suggest that as the students they paying for education was termed as investment is human capital. They are actually paying for the diploma. The reputation of the university helps in getting a job and not the knowledge that is gathered. Fee is set as per the information in the market. Education is treated as investment (for students) and commodity for the (university).

Marketization of Education

Primitive Accumulation: In case of the Marxist economics, the problem that is related to the primitive accumulation of capital is mainly concerned with the capital origin, and the class distinction between the non-possessors and possessors came to be. According to Marx, the primitive accumulation means privatizing of the means of production so that the owners who are exploiting they are able to make money from utilizing the labours who would be working for them. Karl Marx tends to explain primitive accumulations as taking a land, enclosing it and expelling resident to create as landless proletariat and then releasing the land for private capital accumulation (Parker, 2014).  The classical primitive accumulation helps in reflecting more of the pessimistic vision that is related to the fall in the rate of profit that is enjoyed from the days of the World War II. The higher level of productivity was taking a toll on the productivity. For example, the colleges and the universities due to the lack financial support have to rely on the support from the corporation. Thus, there is a no other option left for the university but to serve the needs of the corporate. There are fortunes spent on the facilities of research, which helps the corporations to monetize. The integrity and loss of autonomy is suffered in the process. Due to the higher tuition fees, the colleges are seen to be reputable with lucrative market. Lack of the public transportation and financial resources will be laying groundwork for the privatization while the public schools they suffer. 

As a primary teacher of the educational system of Cyprus, the teachers are treated as the technicians and not as professionals.  The commodity education hold some value stored in it which is getting increasingly popular and acts significantly towards economic growth. The consumers of education are the learners. Capitalism is the trend and the education system is increasingly privatised which is in a way good as it improves the quality of education in another aspect it makes the basic requirement i.e. education quite expensive. Expensive educational system will be depriving many of the people from the middle class not to get basic education (Kjeldsen & Bonvin, 2015).  Praxis will help in guiding and informing the educators. This would in the educational setting whether the setting of institute enables constraints or disables praxis. Praxis is a type of action that is morally committed, informed and oriented by tradition in a field. This action will help in transforming the social world.  Praxis needs to be considered in the in the profession and occupation like farming, medicine and education.  In a particular type of setting when the educator through the service takes into consideration not only his interest but also takes into consideration the individual student and interest of the society and the entire world (Rigney, 2015). This is a way through which a teacher engages into a praxis. Teaching is an age-old humanity and education has the characteristics that were made centuries ago.  There is a constant change in the educational needs over time as teaching has been a pressure from the societal and social development. There was significant rise in the demand for education for the masses during the time of industrialization but there has been a drastic change in the global economic perspective on information. As a community inquirer, there been strategically examination of development of process in different educational field like the education of the schoolteachers, vocational training and education, leadership in education, policy making in education and community education (Kemmis & Smith, 2008).  

Conclusion:

Education is a very important aspect for facilitating learning or acquiring of the knowledge values, skills, beliefs and habits. The guidance by the educator will help to conduct education but the learners can also be educated along the process. The over whelming evidence is that schools they provide evidence of wealth that creates inequality in the class as the middle class they do better as they have more cultural capital. The negative aspect is that the working class they do not accept what they are taught. Education is increasing treated to be as a driver of growth. Education is increasingly being capitalised as there is lower level of funds in the hand of government so the common people are unable to available.  

References:

Berlin, I. (2013). Karl Marx. Princeton University Press.

Kemmis, S. & Smith, T. (2008). Enabling praxis. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publications.

Kitching, G. (2015). Karl Marx and the Philosophy of Praxis (RLE Marxism)(Vol. 6). Routledge.

Kjeldsen, C. C., & Bonvin, J. M. (2015). The capability approach, education and the labour market. In Facing Trajectories from School to Work (pp. 19-34). Springer International Publishing.

Parker, M. (2014). Structures of education and society. Philosophy and Education: An Introduction to Key Questions and Themes, 20.

Prawer, S. S. (2014). Karl Marx and world literature. Verso Books.

Rigney, J. (2015). Social Theory in Education. Philip Wexler. New York: Peter Lang Publishing. 2009. 125 pp. $18.95. Educational Studies, 51(4), 337-340.

Veblen, T. (2015). The socialist economics of Karl Marx and his followers. Read Books Ltd.