Moreover, they would argue that the optimistic faith of adherents of the liberal perspective in the transformative power of government-sponsored education and training betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the role of. institutionalized education in a capitalist society. Far from being an instrument for the transformation of society, institutionalized education necessarily functions to perpetuate existing social class relationships and economic inequality. In Freire's estimation, this point must be grasped before any progress can be made toward an alternative, liberatory, education practice. 42 Let us now explore the critique of institutionalized education put forward by Freire and others, and then, with this as background, go on to examine various examples of liberatory education.

The State

In the view of George Martell, Canadian educator and specialist on working class literacy, it is important to recognize that governments in Canada are not 'neutral'. The capitalist class is powerful in both an economic and a political sense, and its needs and interests predominate in the affairs of the state. 43 Thus, two main functions of the capitalist state are those of supporting and extending profit-making opportunities (e.g. through managing the economy in ways favorable to corporate interests), and of maintaining social control, i.e. preserving the existing pattern of class relationships so that profit-making will continue into the future.

The function of social control is necessary because some of the more negative by-products of production on a capitalist basis--e.g. poverty,, exploitation, destruction of the natural environment--often generate serious grievances against the status quo on the part of subordinate classes, and these reactions must somehow be neutralized in their effects (prevented, controlled, deflected, co-opted, etc.) if existing power relationships are to be maintained.

As a state apparatus, institutionalized education simultaneously fulfills both of these functions--it supports the accumulation process and exerts social control. That is, schooling enhances the productivity of workers at public expense--i.e. through imparting job-relevant skills and knowledge--and helps secure the on-going acquiescence of future workers to their subordinate positions in the existing social, political and economic order. In Freire's words, education functions in a capitalist society to socially "reproduce" from generation to generation "a class of wage earners, obliged to sell their labour to the capitalist class" Because of its role in preserving the class structure, Freire believes that institutionalized education cannot be considered as an instrument of social transformation:.44