Assess the Marxist view of the role of education.

The view of the role of education put forward by Marxism is that, education serves to further and strengthen the capitalist agenda to create a workforce. This means that children are taught values of subordination and compliance, which will prepare them for their lives as workers. This was the view of Althusser who understood this to be a part of the hidden curriculum existing within schools. 

A problem with this view, however, is that it ignores the resillience of students. Willis' 12 lads study highlighted that students can resist the lessons taught from schools through forming deliquent subcultures that encourage truency and misbehaviour. This is because they recognise the inequality within the system and so openly revolt against it.