Examines and assesses Marxist debates over schooling and societal reproduction. Argues that, if Marxists insist on using functional analysis to explain schools in capitalist society, the accuracy of these explanations must be empirically assessed. (FMW)

Some important theoretical work done in the field of education/schooling has come close to losing touch with the hard facts of lived experience. Educational theorists must resist making untenable motivational claims for the power of teachers and students which ignore the massively greater power of capital and its allies. (IAH)