Theories of How Social Reproduction Happens

(to the extent that it does)

• Economic determinism (Marxist approaches)

• Cultural and linguistic capital

• Resistance

Economic Determinism

• the economy requires people to take on different work roles (and thus sets of skills, knowledge, and dispositions)

• Bowles and Gintis (1976) say that schools are training young people for their future economic and occupational position according to their current social class position

• Wilcox, page 301

In order for this theory to work, we need to see….

1) the separation of students by social class background for instruction

2) an evaluation by school personnel of students’ social class background

3) different occupations which require different kinds of orientations and skills

• Do we see these characteristics in Smith and Huntington schools?

1) self-presentation skills

2) external vs. internal modes of

discipline3) future

orientation and sense of self-

efficacy

The Hidden Curriculum• Schools are teaching more than the explicit

curriculum (social studies, math, English, etc) and academic knowledge

• In Rogoff’s terms, they are also a kind of sociocultural activity in which students learn particular kinds of behavior, attitudes, and roles

• The “hidden curriculum” teaches students various kinds of attitudes, roles, and behaviors that correspond to various class positions, according to their social class background

Thinking through economic determinism

• What do you like about this theory? What about this theory helps explains what is going on in our society?

• What don’t you like about this theory? What does this theory leave out as an explanation for what is happening in our society?