1.5 Education - Social Policy Flashcards

Question

2010 - 2015 COALITION GOVERNMENT: POLICIES REDUCING INEQUALITY

Answer 1

Whilst many of their policies appear to have increased inequality, they also introduced policies aiming to reduce inequality (as New Labour did): • Free school meals – for all pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2 • The Pupil Premium – money schools receive for each pupil from a disadvantaged background, encouraged better schools to aim to recruit less advantaged students. BUT: Ofsted (2012) found in many cases Pupil Premium was not spent on those it was supposed to help. Furthermore “austerity” policy has cut spending in many areas of education – closing Sure Start centre, abolishing EMA and increasing university fees to £9000 per year.

Answer 2

Policy Introductions: - Austerity and funding cuts for schools of, on average, 8% - Continuing the rapid academisation of Local Educational Authority schools - Increasing the number of grammar schools - Pushing students to study The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects by making it a measure of the success of a school - Introducing T-Level qualifications and beginning to phase out BTEC qualifications - Grading system at GCSE shifted to a 1-9 system - Progress 8 was introduced in 2016 as a measure of school’s performance based on the average progress a student makes compared to those with similar starting points across the UK - The content of A-Levels and GCSE’s made more academically demanding

Answer 3

Privatisation involves the transfer of public assets, such as schools, to private companies. In recent years there has been a trend towards privatisation, in the UK and globally. Academies and free schools were encouraged to work in partnership with employers and other sponsors to improve education. Sponsors (eg employers/businesses) would have a say in how the school was run and the curriculum offered – therefore they reflect an element of privatisation in education.

Answer 4

Endogenous privatisation involves privatisation from within the education system. It's possible due to schools opting out of the LEA control and being able to manage themselves. Each school is different, and therefore it was seen as best to adapt budgets and contracts accordingly, without LEA input. Schools with endogenous privatisation operate more like private businesses. Some practices they adopt include: - Efficiency and Profit e.g. sponsored activities from local businesses - Performance Targets e.g. teachers being paid more based on performance - Marketing – Gerwitz argues schools spend more time on marketing than they do students

Answer 5

Exogenous Privatisation – Ball & Youdell Exogenous privatisation refers to privatisation from the outside. Aspects of the education system are outsourced to external providers and companies. There's a great market for outside providers to profit from the education system. Examples include: - Global, private exam boards - Classroom tools e.g. Google Classroom, Adobe, Apple, Microsoft Office - Academies and academy trusts – these run a number of schools and include private donors and investors

Answer 6

As a result of privatisation education becomes a source for capitalist profit – Ball (2011) calls this the “education services industry” (ESI). Private companies in the ESI are involved in an increasing range of activities – building schools, providing supply teachers, work-based learning, careers advice, Ofsted inspections etc. Large-scale school building projects often involve public-private partnerships (PPPs) in which private sector companies provide the money to design, build, finance and operate educational services. Companies that build schools are given contracts for repayment and service the building for 25-35 years, with schools paying the ongoing costs. Ball (2007) argues companies involved can expect to make 10x as much profit as they do on other contracts.

Answer 7

Many senior officials involved in education now leave to set up or work for private sector education businesses. These companies bid for contracts to provide services for schools. Pollack (2004) claims companies buy “insider knowledge” to help win contracts and side step local authority democracy.

Answer 8

The private sector is also penetrating schools indirectly, eg. vending machines in schools, and the development of brand loyalty. According to Molnar (2005) schools are targeted by private companies because schools legitimise the product. Benefits to schools from cola-isation are limited eg. Ball found a Cadbury sport equipment promotion was scrapped after it was revealed pupils would have to eat 5,400 chocolate bars for a set of volleyball posts

Answer 9

concludes that privatisation is becoming the key factor shaping educational policy. Policy is moving educational services out of the public sector to be provided by private companies instead. Education is becoming a “legitimate object of profit making” - a commodity to be bought and sold in an education market Similarly, Marxist Hall (2011) sees academies as an example of the handing over of public services to the private capitalists. Marxists argue the neoliberal claim privatisation drives up standards is a myth

Answer 10

Many companies in the ESI are foreign owned, eg. Edexcel is owned by USA company Pearson, and Ball (2007) claims some Pearson GCSE paper are marked in Sydney and Iowa. Furthermore, many contracts for educational services in the UK are sold on, and in a globalised world, often bought by overseas companies. Private companies are exporting UK education policy overseas (eg. Ofsted type inspections) and providing this service in other countries. As a result nation states are becoming less important in policy making which is shifting to a global level.

Answer 11

Globalisation: the way in which the world is becoming increasingly interconnected as a result of increased technology, travel, transportation, trade and communication.

Answer 12

Globalisation has impacted education in other ways: 5) Increased migration has led to more ethnically diverse classrooms meaning multi-cultural approaches have had to occur 6) Greater flow of ideas around the world countries influenced by other countries 7) Demand for a more skilled workforce to compete on a global scale 8) Focus on teaching young people that they are part of a global community Universities now have to run as global businesses aiming to attract students from across the world (they now often set up branches overseas). Overseas students are desirable to universities as they pay higher tuition fees.

Answer 13

Assimilation Policies: 60s and 70s: focused on assimilating ethnic minority pupils into mainstream British culture to try and raise their achievement e.g. help with english BUT: some ethnic minority groups already speak english- real cause is poverty/racism Multicultural Education: 80s and 90s: aimed to promote achievement of EM groups valuing all cultures in schools curriculum to raise self-esteem BUT- some claim MCE is tokenism (picking out stereotypical features of EM culture to include in the curriculum but doesn’t tackle institutional racism) New Right believe education should promote a shared national identity and EM should be assimilated. Social inclusive and raise achievement: late 90s: detailed monitoring of exam results by ethnicity, amended Race Relations Act to promote racial equality. Saturday Schools in the black community, English as an Additional Language programmes. BUT- Gillborn argues institutionally racist policies in relation to the ethnocentric curriculum, assessment and streaming continue to disadvantage EM pupils.

Answer 14

In the 19th century girls were largely excluded from higher education. More recently under the tripartite system girls had to achieve a higher grade in the 11+ to gain entry to a grammar school. Since the 1970s policies such as GIST have been introduced to try and reduce gender differences in subject choice.

1.5 Education - Social Policy Flashcards

(38 cards)