ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Marxist analysis of education by considering what are sometimes known as theories of 'direct reproduction'. It focuses on the more important examples of the direct reproduction theory that is most clearly and comprehensively formulated, and/or those which have attracted the most attention within the sociology of education. The chapter discusses Bowies and Gintis's Schooling in Capitalist America to point out that their thesis breaks down into three parts: what education does—reproduction; (2) how it does it—the correspondence principle; and the forces responsible for reproduction—the economic structure. It considers the debate between Ralph Miliband and some of the structuralist Marxists and the validity of 'structural determinism'. The chapter presents a commentary on the other Marxist ideas.
