Critique of the Political Economy of Education: Methodological Notes for the Analysis of Global Educational Reforms

Abstract

The chapter argues for the validity of Marx’s critique of Political Economy, both as a method for analyzing the Political Economy of Education that underlies global educational reforms and for fighting against them. It presents Marx’s critique of the classical authors and the method that emerged from his studies. It then presents a critique of the Political Economy of Education, the issue of increasing worker productivity, human capital theory, and the international division of labor. Finally, it presents methodological elements to be considered in educational policy research, taking as an example the educational reforms in Mozambique. It concludes that, in the current stage of the international division of labor, education is plunged into contradictions. At the same time that (a) education represents an expanding market with high potential for profitability as enrollment and schooling time increase, (b) school fulfills the function of providing the basic skills to increase productivity and adapt the worker to the ethical-political forms of class society; the capital, in its global movement to maximize profits, is impelled to restrict enrollment, schooling time, the level and nature of the skills to be acquired by workers.