ABSTRACT
The idea of hegemony has been used to think about dominant ideas of gender, race, sexuality, disability and other kinds of oppression, as well as social class. To explain how hegemony might work in practice, Smith uses the example of three employees on a factory production line. The first is a socialist and sees herself as an oppressed member of the working class. The second takes a more common-sense view and sees herself as decent and hard-working, but something of a failure for not making more of her life. The third is a born-again Christian who experiences hardships as God 'testing her faith'. Ignorance of the facts is a kind of hegemonic silencing also. This is why education offers such a powerful response as a weapon against the totalitarian tendencies of hegemony in full swing. Ultimately, hegemony in schools connects beliefs about the purpose, content and value of formal schooling to the whole social system; to advanced global capitalism.
