“Economic wealth is a basis of power in our
society and that wealth can distort and use culture and education for its own
benefits” (Gramsci, 1994; cited in Wadham et. al, 2007) A market-based view of
Education currently dominates todays society’s teaching and learning
curriculums. This market-based approach is a shift in ideologies centred upon
providing students with the mandatory skills and abilities to prepare them to
establish and maintain a successful career in the workforce all in order to
ultimately drive economic growth. (Leaney, 2013)
A report in
the Sydney Morning Herald titled “More Education Equal More Pay” (Browne, 2012)
discusses and states that the lack of continuing school through to year 12 will
automatically place you at a disadvantage when attempting to launch a
prosperous career. They then continue providing statistics, comparing the income
of those whom continue through to tertiary education. "Education does pay off," she
said. "There is a return on education and you can see it in a dollar
figure." (Browne, 2012) This statement epitomizes societies marketable
perception in regards to education emphasizing the fact that its ultimate
purpose is to acquire a well-paying job.
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According to
Gramsci (1994), intellects govern the dominant class within society and have
founded ideologies, such as this marketization of education, yet mask their
exploitations, making them seem ‘ordinary’, fair and rational. The way in which
this masking is achieved is through hegemony. Hegemony is this non-coercive
method of ruling where the ruler has been granted the consent to reign. This
hegemonic ideology is reflected throughout the media and mainly the educational
systems implicated within society today where wealth and the global economy
hold the reigns of power. Consequently, this wealth and strive for power could
warp ones culture, identity and the true purpose of education in its favor.
The newspaper article’s title “New studies reject market-based education” (Maslen,
2013) speaks for itself. It discusses the negative opinion it has towards a
market-based view of education, accentuating the faults of implementing this
marketization of Education, exposing the masked exploitations of the governing
intellects and emphasizing what needs to me changed, embedded and focused on
within education. The article states:
“Those policies
being by promoted by state and federal governments have cost millions of
dollars with little gain in student or teacher learning. Too many of Australia's
education policies are devoted to matters that ultimately have little impact on
student learning. Market-based notions of choice, competition, accountability
and standardisation have been tried unsuccessfully.” (Maslen, 2013)
Their key focus
was to “employ a different mix of policies and (have) ‘quality teaching’" (Maslen, 2013) as the platform for
success.
I believe that
this market-based view of education is both positive and negative. It is
positive as I believe it does develop the intellectual skills and mindset in
order to get a career and earn money to live securely, which subconsciously
drives economic growth – and that I find is necessary. However, I believe it is
also negative as with a market-based view of education, it is just that, a market-based view of education. There is no room for any psychological and
behavioral development or emphasis upon the social skills needed when faced
with reality after school, there is only this focus on pure academics and
wealth. I believe there should be a balance between the two.
References:
Browne, R. October 24 2012, More education equals more pay: report,
Gramsci, A. (1994) Letters from Prison, Columbia University Press, New York.
Leaney, G. (2013) Social Perspectives in Education: Why Educate? The Aims of Education, Lecture Note.
Maslen, G. August 9, 2013, New studies reject market-based education,
Wadham, B. Pudsey, J. & Boyd, R. (2007). Culture and education. Sydney: Pearson Education. Chapter 1: What is culture?
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