Cultural reproduction

Social reproduction refers to the reproduction of social structures and systems, usually based on certain conditions in demography, education and inheritance of material possessions or title ( as before the nobility ). Reproduction is understood as the maintenance and continuation of existing conditions. Here, the social structural change is ignored.

Is a prerequisite for any social reproduction, that in itself may be reproduced social class, social class, or even profession (think for example of circus families ) own children are born. If the number of children is less than the number of parents, already in itself generate social mobility.

In the context of education describes reproduction, that the education system helps to maintain existing power relations. In educational research can be broadly two strands explanation of the function of education for social change differentiate. While the transformation thesis is that social resources are distributed through the education system in a decisive way, sees the reproduction theory in education not an independent variable. The education system is completely dependent on the structure of society and its job is simply to legitimize the existing social inequalities and reproduce. Today, these two theses are in their pure form any more.

Representatives of the reproduction thesis also assign the term equal opportunities of an ideology which serves the reproduction of inequality.

According to Louis Althusser, the education system is part of the ideological state apparatuses that serve the reproduction of labor power.

System

Task of education it is traditional to pass the necessary for the functioning of society skills and information to the younger generations. It is reproduced in a rule in addition to knowledge, the status on education, as a historical example: by noble children are prepared for their domination tasks while rural children were brought up alone in the direction of rural activities.

For reproduction in educational science, the following aspects are counted:

These four aspects overlap and work in the maintenance of social structures. Such adverse effects of education are also referred to as " secret curriculum ".

Social reproduction by Louis Althusser

Louis Althusser, according to the reproduction of labor power is not only the reproduction of the qualifications required, but also the ongoing submission to the rules of the established order, ie:

For the recovery of the labor force did not apply that skill and submission exist side by side, but

Social reproduction by Pierre Bourdieu

The French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu emphasizes the unconscious and conscious disclosure of individual and class habitus ' as the basis of social reproduction. It refers to the different disposition of social and cultural, or educational capital, as a prerequisite for the transfer of the subtle differences between people with respect to taste, lifestyle and social status. The social reproduction he sees through the socialization of the individual and society as closely determined. The person incorporating the expressions of their social class and integrates them individually. Social change represents for him the exception rather dar. equality is an illusion.

History ( Germany )

The demands of education for freedom, equality and fraternity should be achieved in particular through education, which can reach in the bourgeois educational ideas almost everything. At the same time comes with the Enlightenment and the demand for self- subjugation of the people under the social constraints on. So Immanuel Kant wrote in his famous essay answering the question: What is Enlightenment, from which also the much-quoted definition of enlightenment comes as " man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity ": " Argue as much as you want and about what you want; only obey! "

This self- subjugation finds its counterpart in the meritocratic education system in which formally only the power but not the origin to play a role. Here already the educational reformer Wilhelm von Humboldt and John W. were Süvern the concrete implementation of the reforms in Germany after 1812 critically. During Humboldt 's aimed at a comprehensive school, the three -tier school system developed. This then separated from the enrollment the students closely at the layer boundaries, preparing them for careers according to their social background.

That girl in the 19th century only very gradually and received limited access to higher education, can be in the use of language, the imagines this article, also described as "reproduction", ie, as the reproduction of gender roles. Also on the discrimination of linguistic and religious minorities is the figure of thought "reproduction" applicable.

In the Weimar Republic, joining Otto Rühle criticized especially Siegfried Bernfeld in particular the reproduction of class relations, as working-class children were excluded from educational privileges. So writes Bernfeld 1925 in Sisyphus or the boundaries of education: " The economic social structure of the company is clearly defined framework for this reaction in itself. The organization of education is determined on accurate. At their is no other way also to change only the least as solely by a voraufgegangene change this structure. The ... education is conservative. Your organization, it is in particular. She never has been preparing for a structural change in the society. Always - no exception - it was only the result of the completed ".

In National Socialism the reproduction of class relations was exacerbated.

After the end of the Nazi regime that used by the Allies ZOOK Commission recommended abolishing the tripartite school system. It would have helped to promote the subservient mentality and the elite consciousness. In the western sectors, yet the highly selective three -tier school system was retained.

In the Soviet zone of occupation, the education system was denazified consistently. The resulting encountered shortage of teachers was compensated for by many working men and women have been trained in a fast-track procedure to teachers. This and the introduction of a single school, it was possible to increase the number of working children in universities so far that it corresponded to the percentage proportion in the total population. From the 1960s, the various levels of education is reproduced again largely from himself

Even today, the reproduction effect of education is criticized. In the Federal Republic of Germany, this criticism is usually fixed to the early division of students in different types of schools. This leads to a systematic error of judgment by the teachers, to the detriment of children from lower classes and among migrant children ( PIRLS ). In recent years, increasing attention has been made in the afternoons on the lack of care. In particular, the PISA study shows that in international comparison, the social mobility in the German education is very low. A PISA - country comparison of 2003 has shown that in Bavaria academics children towards skilled workers children with the same reading and mathematics skills, a nearly 7 -fold higher chance of a high school visit has ( a national average of a 4-fold higher chance ). Simply by formal facilitating access to higher education ( which are devalued inflationary ) the reproduction effect can not be overcome (→ Bildungsparadox ).

Criticism

Critics note that would require ultimately a society in which life chances are distributed fairly, not only the abolition of inheritance, but also an early, extensive collectivization of early childhood education. Such a society is no less utopian than one from the outset classless. Therefore, these critics preferred for constructive criticism of the educational system concepts such as " social mobility " and " equal opportunities ".