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The Kelpie, Herbert James Draper

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Jeremy Miranda (American,b. 1980)

Tide Pool

Acrylic on panel

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Vogue Italia, July 1998.

Ph. Satoshi Saikusa

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Patti Smith’s idols: Jean Genet, Albert Camus, Bob Dylan

by Albert Scopin, 1970

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MARXISM ON THE ROLE OF EDUCATION

WILLIS: LEARNING TO LABOUR

In 1977, Paul Willis performed a participant-observation study on working class pupils (the “lads”), with a focus on how they’d rejected the ideology and culture of the school. Unlike most Marxist sociology however (positivist), Willis takes an interactionalist approach - looking at individuals, rather than large-scale trends and patterns.

WILLIS’ STUDY: THE LAD’S COUNTER CULTURE

Qualitative data, participant observation, unstructured Interviews

12 working-class males

Found that they establish a counter-culture - rejecting conformity and obedience

They dismiss meritocratic ideology that working-class pupils can achieve middle-class occupations through hard work, instead creating social-value within their sub-culture

Primary objective of “the lads” was to “have a laff”

The subculture they were a part of was similar to “shop-floor culture”; finding satisfaction through each other rather than the work they performed. Academic work was rejected and seen as effeminate, whereas manual labour was seen as preferable. 

Ironically, this serves an equally effective function to capitalism: the gratification found in each other rather than the act of work itself, was a coping mechanism they’d have to learn before entering the alienating, routine and menial labour they would likely end up in.

EVALUATION OF HIS STUDY:

Only 12 participants. This is hard to make generalizations from.

He tended to romanticize the participants, despite their often anti-social and sexist behaviour.

Qualitative data provides a valuable insight, positivist sociology tends to neglect individuals and their personal experiences, Willis did not.

Next: evaluation of Marxist perspectives on education

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https://www.instagram.com/p/Bia2HGFBJpq/

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Punk girls on the Tube. London, 1983. Photo © Gavin Watson.

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Untitled #61 (by proxy), Anna Gaskell, 1999

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Spiderweb series by Ionánnis Papadakis, SFX by Catalina Sartor

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