Social Conflict Theory In Education

Social conflict theory in its classical form is the struggle between different parts of the society over valued and scarce resources in a sense that they have been centralized and controlled by a few elites (Allman, 2001). As a result of social conflicts, scarce resources turned a small group of people into capitalists in the nineteenth century. Capitalists are people who are in possession and control the factories and other businesses in pursuit of profits gains. For this reason, capitalism turned most people into industrial workers, whom Karl Marx refers to as proletarians (Allman, 2001). Proletarians are people who sell their labour for wages. Conflict theorists draw attention to power differentials, such as class, gender and race conflict,

It scrutinizes how groups or individuals with specific agendas endeavor to bring change or control basic education system for their own benefits. Furthermore, conflict theorists argue that an inequality of economic and cultural opportunities and resources creates tension between rich and poor communities that pervades the public school system (Jilot, 2012). The conflict theory owes its existence to the ideas of Karl Marx who believed that “society is a dynamic entity constantly undergoing change driven by class conflict” (Collins, 2013). Conflict theory in education is of the view that basic education in public schools does not reduce social inequality. Instead, it strengthens and perpetuates social inequalities arising from differences in class, gender, race, and ethnicity (Collins,

Historically, in the South African context during the apartheid regime, education was designed to serve this purpose perpetuating the status quo and pushing black people of lower standard into obedience, which one would argue is still the case in post-apartheid South Africa. This is based on the idea that the kind of education that black people receive reinforce and solidify social classes on the basis of race, with white people being on the top of the ladder and black people at the bottom. This is mostly based on the fact that a significant portion of the black population in South Africa remain poor and are unable to purchase the kind of education that is available to white population and the rich since education remains a commodity in South Africa that is sold in the commercial