Educational policies 1944-1988

Question 1

What was education in 1944?

Answer 1

Tripartite system

Question 2

What was the 1944 school system influenced by?

Answer 2

students supposedly allocated to schools based off their ability identified by the 11+

Question 3

What were the three schools within the tripartite system?

Answer 3

technical, secondary modern,Grammar schools

Question 4

criticisms of the tripartite system

Answer 4

• kids who failed 11+ felt weak
• Culturally bias in favour of middle class
• Gender bias girls marks adjusted due to boys maturing later myth
• Not many technical schools were built

Question 5

Percentage of who attended each school in tripartite school system.

Answer 5

5% - technical schools
20% - grammar schools
75% - secondary model schools

Question 6

What was the educational aim in 1965+

Answer 6

comprehensivisation –> a need to reduce social class differences with all people being able to access equality of opportunity

Question 7

what influenced the 1965 need for social equality in education

Answer 7

influenced by labour

Question 8

What was the functionalist viewpoint on comprehensivisation in 1965?

Answer 8

• argue that comprehensive promotes social integration by bringing children of different social classes together
• see the comprehensive system as meritocratic as it gives students longer period to develop and show abilities rather than sorting into a tripartite

Question 9

Marxist viewpoint on the comprehensivisation in 1965?

Answer 9

• Argue they are not meritocratic but rather reproduce class inequality through streaming and labelling → these continue to deny equal opportunity
• By not selecting students at 11 justifies the myth of meritocracy making underachievement seem fault of individual rather than the system

Question 10

Criticisms of comprehensivisation 1965?

Answer 10

• schools still sort into sets dependent on test scores
• schools tend to be single-class

Question 11

What changed in the 1970’s in education?

Answer 11

New vocationalism –> The need to focus on the aims of education to produce skilled workers.

Question 12

Criticisms of 1970’s new vocationalism

Answer 12

• Enforces good work discipline not skills
• Vocational not regarded as highly
• Forces girl into stereotypical jobs

Question 13

What was the 1988 era ?

Answer 13

A time of the Education Reform act

Question 14

What policies were added in 1988 to better standards in education?

Answer 14

• National curriculum introduced
• Ofstead to serve school inspections
• Academies –> schools ability to opt out and get money directly from the government

Question 15

What policy its were made to create a system of choice and competition within education?

Answer 15

• Parents have a choice of which school they sent their child to
• choice made using league tables
  -‘parentocracy’ power of parents
• Schools worked like businesses and advertised for parents

Question 16

What testing was introduced?

Answer 16

More standardised testing
- SATS,GCSE,GNVQ
- League tables created to display these results

Question 17

Criticisms of the 1988 policy

Answer 17

• Middle class parents have more of an advantage in an educational market
• Constant testing can be stressful

-Ball claimed the curriculum was outdated and believed parentocracy was a myth as not all parents had the choice

Question 18

Evaluation of the 1988 ERA

Answer 18

Marketisation has been dominant for 30 years
Gerwitz - middle class have an advantage as they can play the system
skilled/unskilled / semi-skilled choosers

Question 19

what is marketisation?

Answer 19

the process of introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between suppliers into areas run by the state such as education.

Question 20

What is a parentocracy?

Answer 20

‘rule by parents’ it is the parents running marketisation as the power is shifted away from producers ( teachers and schools)

Question 21

What is cream skinning in regards to education?

Answer 21

‘good schools’ are able to be more selective,choose their own customers and recruit high achieving pupils.

Question 22

What is silt-shifting in regards to education?

Answer 22

Good’ schools can avoid taking less able pupils who are likely to get poor results and will not damage the schools league tables

Question 23

What is funding formula?

Answer 23

a funding per child for schools

Question 24

What is the impact of funding formulas?

Answer 24

So popular schools get more funds → can access better teaching and better facilities
More funding also allows schools to be more selective and attract more ambitious applicants

Question 25

What was Gerwirtz thinking on the 1988 education system?

Answer 25

Privileged-skilled choosers/Disconnecte local choosers/ semi-skilled choosers

Question 26

What are privileged skilled choosers?

Answer 26

Those who are highly educated have
Cultural capital –> know how admission systems worked

Economic capital –> able to move to more highly regarded school catchment areas

Question 27

What are disconnected local choosers?

Answer 27

Working class parents who had restricted choices.

Less aware of what’s available to them / prioritises safety and facilities over league tables

Question 28

what are semi-skilled choosers?

Answer 28

mainly working class but were ambitious for their children

cultural capital- found it difficult to make sense of the education market
Often frustrated at inability to get children into schools.