25306300 Marxism in Education

7/30/2019 25306300 Marxism in Education

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Marxism in education

Main characteristic of Marxism

Karl Marx {1818-1883}, a revolutionary thinker, philosopher and author, is regarded theoriginator of Marxism. He along with his colleague and friend Fried rich Engles propounded

a body of socio-economic doctrine which came to be called Marxism. Marxism is a theory of

revolutionary change. Capture of political power by the working class is the beginning andafter it the dictatorship of proletariat should be establish at massive task of social and

economic transformation should start so that the way for a class less society may be paved.

In practice Marxism has divided the world in two main blocks- the capitalist or liberal blockand the communist or the social block. With the disintegration of USSR Marxism has

received a great setback. Some of the most important characteristic of Marxism are

mentioned below

Marxism believes in the materialistic philosophy of life.Mans essence is defined in the terms of productivity- i.e. man is a productive animal.

Man posses no personal or individual freedom but finds his freedom in following the

collective will of the people.

The working class must seize the power and abolish private ownership then there will be aclassless society. All the people will own natural resources.

Religion as the opium of the people.

Implication of Marxism in education:-

Central aim of education:- Under Marxism, the ultimate purpose of education is to strengthenthe state and the building up of a classless society. Knowledge is not to be imparted or

acquired for its own sake. It has social purpose- namely the service of the state.

Production-oriented education:-according to Marx, education should be combined productive

work. he appreciated the work of a British factory owner, Robert Owen for initiating thisidea. Marx observed from the factory system budded, as Robert Owen has shown in detail,

the germ of education of the future, an education that will, in the case of every child over aagain age, combined productive labor with instruction and gymnastic, not only as one of themethods of adding to the efficiency of production, but as the only method of producing fully

developed human beings.

Curriculum.

As stated above the teaching of productive work and teaching of practical activities of life

must be made essential and these activities should be social and useful. Marx stressed the

importance of studying history scientifically. The significance of class struggle could befully understood through the study of social science. Competence in vocational field should

be encouraged.

Stress on group work.

Marxian education mitigates competition and substitutes it by group work of different kinds.

The child is made to feel from the very beginning that he is a unit in the society and has dutyto society.

Educational Agencies. the state is the sole agency of education. It has absolute power and

con troll of all educational institutions. There is no decentralization of educational


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administration or educational planning or curriculum. The method of instruction, textbooks

and evaluation system are all centrally controlled and administered by the state. Discipline is

very rigid. nursery education is given due importance.

Free and Compulsory education. Education is compulsory at the school stage. It is free at all

levels.

PAULO FREIRE {1921-1997}

Brief life sketch of Friere. A Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, who took a vow at the age ofeleven to dedicate his life to the struggle against hunger so that other children would not

have to face the agony he was then experiencing, has made profound impact only in the

overall struggle for development in the Third World countries but also in the field of

education. After obtaining his Ph.D. in 1959 form the university of Recife, he worked forsometime as a Professor of History and Philosophy of Education at the same university.

Goals of education

According toPaulo Freire, following are the main goals of education.

1. Power awareness2. Critical Literacy

3. Desocialisation

4. Self-education

Meaning of Educational Practice. educational practice is not seen as extension but as

communication, Extension is negative in nature and communication positive in nature.

Education is not the transfer, or transmission of knowledge or cultures. Nor is it theextension of technical knowledge. It is not the act of depositing reports or facts in the

educate to the milieu.

I see education as the practice of freedom above all as a truly gnosiological situation in theeducational process for liberation, educator-educatee and educatee-educators are both

cognitive subjects before knowable objects which mediate them

Placed face to face before themselves they investigate and question themselves. The morethe ask question the more that their curiosity about the object of their knowledge is not

decreasing. It only dismisses if it is isolated from human being and the world.

Dialogical Method

Paulo Freire suggests the following methods:

(a) Active, dialogical, critical and criticism-stimulating method.

(b) Change in the program and content of education.(c) Use of techniques like thematic breakdown and codification.

Banking Concept of Education

Paulo Freire has introduced the new terminology of banking concept in education. HE

explains this by stating that the narration of the teacher turns students into containers, into

receptacles to be filled. Education thus become an act of depositing in which the students

are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. Instead of communicating, the teacher


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issue communicate and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize and

repeat. This is the banking concept of education, in which the scope of education allowed

to the students extends only as far as receiving and storing the deposits.

Ideology of the oppressed. According to the banking concept of education, knowledge

becomes a gift bestowed by those who regard themselves knowledgeable upon those whom

they consider to know nothing. This projection of an absolute ignorance on others by theknowledgeable is a characteristic of the ideology of oppressed. it negates education and

knowledge as processes of enquiry. The students accept their ignorance like a slave. Paulo

Freire here makes an interesting point by stating but unlike the slave, they never discoverthat they educate the teacher. Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-students

contradictions, by recording the poles of the contradiction so that both simultaneously

teachers and students.

Following are the chief characteristics of the banking education which lead to severalcontradictions in the system.

1) The teacher teaches and the students are taught.

2) the teacher knows everything and the students know nothing.

3) the teacher thinks and the students are thought about.4) the teacher talks and the students listen-meekly.

5) the teacher discipline and the students disciplined.6) the teacher chooses and he enforces his choice, and the students comply.

7) the teacher acts and the student have the illusion of acting through the action of the

teacher.8) the teacher chooses the program content and the students (who are not committed)

adopt it.

9) the teacher confuses the authority of knowledge with his own professional authority

which he sits in opposition to the freedom of the students.10) the teacher is the subject of the learning process, while the pupils are mere objects.

The banking system reduces the creative power of the students. This is in the interest of the

oppressor. That oppressors, through their welfare schemes what they call humanitarismpreserve their superiority. They oppressed are termed as marginals, incompetent and lazy.

The banking procedure dehumanism the students and adults in place of humanize them.

Contribution of Friere to Principles and Practices in Education:-

Friere views are summarized as under:

1. authentic thinking-thinking that is concerned with reality does not takes place in

ivory tower isolation, but only in effective communication.2. Problem Solving education, responding to the essence of conciousness-intentionally

rejects communiqus. Problem solving epitomizes the special characteristics of

consciousness.3. The movement of enquiry must be believed and directed towards humanization. The

pursuit of humanity cannot unfold in the antagonistic relation between oppressors and

oppressed. No one can be authentically human while he prevents others from beingso.

4. Teachers cannot think without the pupils, nor or the pupils but only with the

pupils.


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5. In the banking system of education there should be a two-way traffic. The roles of the

depositors, the prescribers and the receivers must be exchanged to a great measure.

6. There should be true communication between the teacher and the students. A teachercannot think for his students. He also cannot impose his thought on them.

7. Dialogical relations- The teacher-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teacher

leads to a situation wherein the teacher is no longer merely the one-who-teaches, butone who is himself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being

taught also teach. They become jointly responsible for process in which all grow.

8. In the dialogical relations, no one teaches another nor is anyone self-taught. Peopleteach each other.

9. In the dialogical system, the students are no longer docile listeners now they are co-

investigators in dialogue with the teacher.

10. In the dialogical system, knowledge does not remain at the doxs (opinion) level butreaches the level of the Logos (reason).

11. Dialogue cannot be reduced to the act of one-person depositing ideas in another,

nor it can become a simple exchange of ideas to be consumed by the discussants.

It must be meaningful.12. Dialogue cannot exist without humility.

13. Faith is an apriori requirement for dialogue.14. The task of the dialogical teacher in an interdisciplinary team working on the

thematic universe id to represent the universe to the students not as a lecture but as

a problem.15. Some fundamental themes should be taken up for teaching-learning and learning-

teaching in dialogical relations. The themes may be broken up. The thematic

breakdown splits the total themes in search of their fundamental nuclei, which arr the

partial elements.16. Themes may be printed by means of brief dramatizations, reading and discussion of

magazine articles, newspapers, book chapters (beginning with passages) and records

interviews.17. In the dialogical relations, arguments based on authority are no longer valid.

Authority is on the side of freedom, not against it.

18. Problem Solving in the dialogical system stimulates creativity and true reflection.19. Students, as they are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves in the

world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and respond to the

challenges resulting in development on new understandings.

20. The teacher must be imbued with a profound trust in the creative power of hisstudents.

21. The teacher should become a partner of the students in his relationships with them.

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25306300 Marxism in Education