Classroom as a Site of Class Struggle

Abstract

In capitalist class society, there are permanent tendencies toward class struggle in its ideological form, both from above and from below. The academic classroom is a major site of ideological class struggle. Professors in social sciences and humanities generally teach ruling class ideas that, more or less, justify the reproduction of capitalism. Students can challenge these ideas by questioning their professors’ ontological and epistemological standpoint as well as their views on the nature of the existing class society and what is to be done about it. This socialist approach to the classroom which sees it as a part of the wider class society has practical implications. To paraphrase Marx, it is not enough to question—and educate—the educators. Students, who are not only students but also ‘future workers’, should make demands on the system to improve not only the quality of their education but also their current (and future) working lives as well as those of their professors. Students and a section of the professoriate can together create alternative spaces within and outside academia for collaborative education that is also critical of the current society and that can contribute toward its radical change.