Education: Educational policy Flashcards

Question

Marketisation EVAL - Sink schools

Answer 1

League tables cause irrevocable damage/ -results dip -lower position -fewer applicants -Ofsted highlights probkem -less funding -less money to improve -declining results -failing schools

Answer 2

Accelerated man move away from comprehensive schools ran by authorities. Cameron stated the aim of the Coalition’s policy was to encourage ‘excellence, competition & innovation’ by freeing schools from the ‘dead hand of the state’. Cuts made to education govt.

Answer 3

-From 2010, all schools encouraged to leave authority control and become academies and funding taken from local authority budgesys and given directly to academies by central govt. -By 2017, 68% of secondary schools became academies. Some ran by private educational business & funded by state. -Coaltion govt allowed any school to be an academy rather than poorer ones reducing focus on removing inequality.

Answer 4

Run by parents, teachers, organisations and businesses. -Supporters of this claim they improve educational standards by giving power t patents if they are unhappy with state schools in their area. -**Allen 2010** argued in Sweden where 20% are free schools, they only benefit kids from children from highly educated families. -Others claim free schools lower standards n Swedens education standards ranking has fallen since.

Answer 5

-**Fragmentation** the comprehensive system is being replaced by a patchwork of diverse provision, much of it involving private providers, leading to greater inequality in opportunities. -**Centralisation of control** central govt has power to allow or require schools to become academies or allow free schools to be set ip & these are funded directly by the govt & their graphic growth has greatly reduced the role of elected local authorities in education.

Answer 6

Introduced policies aiming to reduce inequality: -Free school meals for all children in reception, Y1 & Y2. -The pupil premium which is miney that schools receive for each pupil from a disadvantaged background. But, Ofsted found this isn’t always spent in those it’s supposed to help and only 1/10 teachers said it changed how they supported pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. As part of the ‘austerity’ programme, spending on school buildings cut, EMA abolished, Sure Start closed & tuition fees tripled to £9000.

Answer 7

-Involves the transfer of public assets such as schools to private companies. -Education becomes a source of profit for capitalists in what Ball calls the ‘education services industry or ESI. -Involved in increasing activities in education such as providing supply teachers, careers advice etc. -Large scale school building projects often involve public-private partnerships where private sector companies provide capital to design, build, finance & operate educational services. -Balk says that companies involved in such work expect to make up to 10 times as much profit as they do in other contracts. However, local authorities are often obliged to enter into these agreements as the only way of building new schools because of a lack of funding by central government.

Answer 8

Many senior officials in the public sector leave to set up or work for private sector education businesses. These companies then bid for contracts to provide services to schools & local authorities. E.g. 2 companies set up in this way hold 4 of the 5 national contracts for school inspection services. -Pollack notes the flow of personnel allows companies to buy insider knowledge to help win contracts as well as side stepping local authority democracy.

Answer 9

-Many private companies in the education devices industry are foreign owned (Edexcel by US). Ball says some GCSEs are marked in Sydney & Iowa. -Buckingham & Scanlon say the 4 leading educational software companies owned by global multinationals. -Many contracts for educational devices in the UK are sold in by the original company to others such as banks & investment funds & in a globalised world, these are often bought by overseas companies. -Conversely, some UK edu-businesses work overseas. E.g. Prospects worked in China & Finland. -Often private companies are exporting UK education policy to other countries & then providing the services to deliver the policies & as a result, nation states are becoming less important in policy making, which is shifting to a global level which is also often privatised.

Answer 10

-The private sector is penetrating education indirectly (vending machines & development of brand loyalty through displays of logos & sponsorship). -**Molnar** says schools are targeted by private companies because schools by their nature carry enormous goodwill and can thus confer legitimacy in anything associated with them & are a kind of product endorsement. -However, the benefits to schools & pupils of this private sector involvement are often very limited. E.g. Ball says a Cadbury’s sports equipment promotion was scrapped after it was revealed that pupils would have to eat 5440 choco bars to qualify for a set of volleyball posts.

Answer 11

Ball concluded that privatisation is becoming the key factor to shaping educational policy & is focussing on moving educational services out of the public sector controlled by the nation-state to be provided by private companies instead. -Education is being turned into a ‘legitimate object of private profit making’ to be bought and sold in an education market. -Marxists, such as Hall (2011) see Conservative policed as part of the ‘long march of the neoliberal revolution’. Hall sees academies as an example of handing over public services to private capitalists such as educational businesses. -Marxists believe that the neoliberalist claim that completion and privatisation drives up standards is a myth to legitimate the turning of eduction into a source of private profit.

Answer 12

In the 19th century, females were largely excluded from higher education. Since the 70s, police’s such as GIST introduced to reduce gender differences in subject choice.

Answer 13

-These policies in the 60-70s, focussed in the need for pupils from minority ethnic groups to assimilate into mainstream British culture as a way of raising their achievement especially by helping those for whom English was not their first language. -Critics argue some minority groups who are at risk of underachieving such as African Caribbean’s already speak English and it is because of poverty and racism.

Answer 14

Through the 80-90s, aimed to promote the achievements of children from minority ethnic groups by valuing all cultures in the school curriculum raising pupils self esteem. Criticised: -Stone argues black pupils don’t fail for lack of self esteem so it’s misguided. -Critical race theorists argue that MCE is mere tokenism & picks out stereotypical features of minority cultures for inclusion in the curriculum but fails to tackle institutional racism. -NR critics MCE for perpetuating cultural divisions & say education should share a national culture.

Answer 15

Of pupils from minority ethnic groups and policies to raise their achievement became the focus of the 90s: -Detailed monitoring of exam results by ethnicity. -Amending the Race Relations Act to place a legal duty on community. -English as an Additional Language programmes. However, Mirza sees little genuine change and argues that instead of tacking structural causes, educational policy takes a soft approach. Gillborn argues that institutionally racist policies such as ethnocentric curriculum disadvantage minorities.

Answer 16

**Endogeneous**: privatisation WITHIN education: schools acting more like business including strategies by gathering ideas from a private sector in running a schools. Making schools more competitive. -E.G. academies, parental choice, league tables. **Exogeneous**: privatisation OUTSIDE of school where businesses start running & managing schools or delivering aspects of education that were formally delivered by state such as catering. E.G. vending machines, books, teams/google, laptops.

Education: Educational policy Flashcards

(41 cards)