ABSTRACT
This article by Peter Stevens exemplifies the genre of philosophy of education in 1976, while it also illustrates views of the relationship between ideology and schooling at that time. As Stevens notes, his article aims to discuss insights which come from ‘radical critics of schools’, through theory development rather than concept analysis. In the text, he distinguishes Marxist views of ideology as opposed to science from an Althusserian perspective on ideology as a basic part of social formation. He goes on to assert that a Marxist orientation toward class consciousness neology, as part of fundamental social formation, neglects attention to the importance of unconsciousness and materiality. Emphasising the significance of the materiality of existence and experience, Stevens describes schools as neological state apparatuses which enable submission to capitalist production processes and conditions. He describes the alignment of schools with the state by observing how schools are controlled by central authorities, fragmented and highly differentiated by role and rank, and engage external motivation on an individual, competitive, apparently meritocratic basis. In relation he recognises schooling as mandated by states, to contribute to the reproduction of labour relations in part via transmission of ideologies about social relations. He concludes by recommending future research in the field which examines how the rituals of schooling work to reproduce class relations via detailed analysis, and bolsters critiques of capitalist ideologies.
