Education in Capitalist Societies Functions Primarily as a Mechanism of Class Reproduction
Thesis: Education contested in an unjust capitalist framework serves the interests of dominant classes as it reproduces their privilege under the banner of meritocracy.
In her work Class Borders, political theorist Lea Ypi argues that education in capitalist societies is primarily a reproducer of class and not a liberating force toward social justice. Although liberal democracies often set education up as a sphere for equality, Ypi illustrates its structural nature as a reproducer and perpetuator of economic inequality.
The main idea is that within a morally bad capitalist framework education serves the interests of the majority of privileged social classes to maintain those privileges under the guise of meritocracy.
Wealthy students inherit both material wealth as well as cultural capital, specifically language use, social aims, and social ties, in a purportedly neutral schooling environment. Students from less wealthy backgrounds meanwhile will compete in an environment that is structural in its exclusionary approach.
Some defenders of the system, such as Rawlsian theorists, may contend that educational inequality is justified, as long as it is a means to benefit the least advantaged. However, Ypi’s critique goes further: she contends that the system is implicated in normalizing and sustaining inequality rather than challenging or overthrowing it. Even the right to citizenship—a crucial form of social participation—is encumbered by contingent social and legal obstacles.
While education can, to an extent, provide a means for social mobility for a minority of people, the same holds true. These are anomalous cases and do not impact the structures of privilege for the overwhelming majority. These exceptions also appear to obscure the more important, systemic role that education plays contributing to preserving the status quo of social privilege.
If we want to change education to be a site of justice, we must critically analyze not just what education outcomes produce, but also the economic and political circumstances that constitute it as a social institution.