Educational Policy

Question 1

Educational policy in Britain

Answer 1

Late 18th century - no state schools, education available to minority.
Industrialisation increases need for educated workforce & from late 19th century state began to become more involved with education. Mc pupils given academic curriculum to prepare them for career in professions for office work. Wc given schooling to equip them with basic numeracy & literacy skills meets for routine factory work & instil them obedient attitude to superiors.

Question 2

Education reform act 1988

Answer 2

Marketisation, league tables, parentocracy, ofsted, national curriculum = improve schools through competition. Good schools = good league table ranking, bad schools = bad rankings. Pick & choose students = educational triage - A-C economy.

Question 3

Marketisation

Answer 3

Process of introducing market forces of consumer choice & competition between suppliers into areas run by state - education. It’s created education market by reducing direct state control over education & increasing both competition between schools & parental choice of school.
Become central theme of government education policy since 1988 education reform act introduced by conservatives. New labour government emphasising standards, diversity & choice. From 2010 conservatives took marketisation even further - creating free schools & academies.
Neo & new right like this = schools have to attract customers - parents by competing with each other.

Question 4

Parentocracy

Answer 4

Policies to promote marketisation include:
- publication of league tables & ofsted reports.
- business sponsorship of schools.
- allowing parents & others to set up free schools.
David - marketised education as parentocracy = rules by parents. Education market - power shifts away from producers (teachers & schools) to consumers (parents). Encourages diversity among schools, gives parents more choice & raises standards.

Question 5

Reproduction of inequality

Answer 5

Increased inequality from marketisation.
Ball & Whitty - marketisation policies such as exam league tables & funding formula reproduce class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools.

Question 6

League tables & cream skimming

Answer 6

Publishing schools exam results in league tables = ensures schools that achieve good results in more demand as parents are attracted to those with good league table rankings.
Bartlett - cream skimming: good schools can be more selective, choose own customers & recruit high achieving mainly mc pupils = gain advantage.
- silt shifting: good schools can avoid taking less able pupils who get poor results & damage schools league table position.

Question 7

Funding formula

Answer 7

Schools allocated funds by formula based on how many pupils they attract = popular schools get more funds & can afford better qualified teachers & better facilities. Popularity allows them to be more selective & attracts more able/ambitious mc kids. Unpopular schools lose income & difficult to match teacher skills & facilities of more successful rivals = failure & funding is reduced.

Question 8

Gerwitz: parental choice

Answer 8

Study of 14 London secondary schools = differences in parents economic & cultural capital = class differences in how far they can exercise choice of secondary school. 3 types of parents:
- privileged skilled choosers = mc parents used economic & cultural capital to gain educational capital for children. Were prosperous, confident & well educated, able to take full adv of choices. Parents had cultural capital - know how school admissions systems work.
- disconnected local choosers = wc parents, choices = restricted by lack of economic & cultural capital. Found it difficult to understand school admissions, less confident in dealings & had less adv. Distance & cost of travel = restrictions on choice of school.
- semi skilled choosers = wc parents but ambitious for kids. Lack cultural capital & difficult making sense of education market & rely on others opinions.
Gewirtz = mc parents possess cultural & economic capital & have more choice than wc.

Question 9

Myth of paretocracy

Answer 9

Ball - it’s a myth not reality. Makes it appear that all parents have same freedom to choose which school to send their kids to.
Gewirtz = mc parents better able to take adv of choices.
Disguising schooling reproduces class inequality = myth of parentocracy makes inequality in education appear fair & inevitable.

Question 10

New labour & inequality 1997

Answer 10

Reduce inequality:
- designations deprived areas as education action zones & giving them more resources.
- aim higher programmes to raise aspirations of groups who are under represented in higher education.
- education maintenance allowances = payments to students from low incomes to encourage them to stay in school after 16 = better qualifications.
- sure start = national literacy strategy, lit & numeracy hours & reducing primary school classes = reduce inequality.

Question 11

Coalition of government policies 2010

Answer 11

Move away from education based on comprehend schools run by local academies = influenced by neoliberal & new right ideas - reducing role of state in provision of education through marketisation & privatisation.
Encourage excellence, competition & innovation by freeing schools from state.

Question 12

Academies

Answer 12

2010 - all schools encourages to leave local authority control & become academies. Funding taken from local authority budges & given to academies by government & academies given control over curriculum.
2012 - over 1/2 secondary schools converted to academies. Removed focus on reducing inequality.

Question 13

Free schools

Answer 13

Schools set up & run by parents, teachers, faith organisations or businesses rather than local authority.
Improve educational standards by taking control away from state & giving power to parents. It gives them opportunity to create new schools if unhappy with state schools in local area.

Question 14

Privatisation of education

Answer 14

Transfer of public assets - schools to private companies. Trend towards privatisation of imposts aspects of education. Education becomes source of profit for capitalists = education services industry - Ball.

Question 15

Open enrolment (parental choice)

Answer 15

Open Enrolment is where parents are allowed to select multiple schools to send their children too, but only specifying one as their ‘first choice’. The result of this was that some schools became oversubscribed, and these were allowed to select pupils according to retain criteria.

Question 16

1944 – 1965: The Tripartite System

Answer 16

The 1944 Education Act brought in the Tripartite System which was based on the principles of meritocracy. This involved children being selected and allocated to one of 3 different types of secondary school, supposedly according to their aptitude and abilities. This was based on a test called the 11+ exam.
- Grammar Schools – offered an academic curriculum and access to non-manual jobs and higher education. They were for pupils with academic abilities who passed the 11+. These pupils were mainly middle class.
- Secondary Modern Schools – offered a non-academic practical curriculum and access to manual work for pupils who failed the 11+. These pupils were mainly working class.
- Technical Schools – were the third type but only existed in a few areas so really there was a choice of two schools for the majority. These would teach mechanical, scientific and engineering skills to skills to serve industry and science.

Question 17

The tripartite system (evaluation)

Answer 17

• Marxists: Rather than promoting meritocracy the system reproduced class inequality by channelling two social classes into two different types of schools that offered unequal opportunities.
• Feminists: The system also reproduced gender inequality by requiring girls to gain higher marks than boys in the 11+ to obtain a grammar school place.

Question 18

1965 Onwards: Comprehensive Schooling

Answer 18

The comprehensive system aimed to overcome the class divide of the tripartite system and make education more meritocratic. The 11+ was abolished along with grammars and secondary moderns. All pupils in a certain area would attend the local comprehensive school.

Question 19

Comprehensive schooling (evaluation)

Answer 19

It was left to the local education authority to decide whether or not to go over to this system and not all did.
Functionalists: Were in favour of comprehensive schooling because they argue it promotes integration and bringing children of different social classes together in one school. However an early study by Ford (1969) found little social mixing between working-class and middle-class pupils because of streaming.

Question 20

Education post 1988: Under Thatcher and Beyond

Answer 20

The Education Reform Act of 1988 introduced marketization to education. This has created an education market by reducing direct state control over education and increasing competition between schools and parent choice of school.

Question 21

Parentocracy

Answer 21

This literally means ‘rule by parents’ and promoted a market by several means including:
- Publication of league tables and Ofsted inspection reports that rank schools according to it exam performance to give parents the information to choose the right school.
- Open enrolment, allowing successful schools to recruit more pupils.
- Funding formula, where schools receive funding per pupil.
- Schools having to compete to attract pupils.
David (1993) claims that this encouraged diversity among schools, give parents more choice and raises standards.

Question 22

Coalition Government Policies from 2010

Answer 22

Conservative-Liberal democrat government elected in 2010 had policies strongly influence by the New Right and Neoliberals. They further supported the marketisation of education through:
- Allowing schools to become academies and opt out of local education authority control.
- Allowing parents and others to set up free schools. They are funded directly by the state but are set up and run by
parents, teachers, faith organisation or businesses rather than the local authority. It gives parents the chance to create a new school if they are unhappy with the state schools in their local area.

Question 23

League tables

Answer 23

Ball (1994) and Whitty (1998) criticise marketization policies by highlighting that they reproduce class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools. Bartlett (1993) explained this by noting these policies encourage:

Question 24

1.) Cream-skimming

Answer 24

‘good’ schools can be more selective, chose their own customer and recruit high achieving mainly middle class pupils. As a result these pupils gain an advantage

Question 25

2.) slit-shifting

Answer 25

‘good’ schools can avoiding taking less able pupils who are likely to get poor results and damage the schools league table position. For schools with poor league table positions, the opposite applies: they cannot afford to be selective and have to take less able, mainly working class pupils so their results are poorer and they remain unattractive to middle-class parents. The overall effect of league tables is thus to produce unequal schools and reproduce social class inequalities.

Question 26

The funding formula

Answer 26

Schools are allocated funds by a formula based on how many pupils they attract. As a result, popular schools get more funds and so can afford better-qualified teachers and better facilities. This allows them to be more selective and attracts more able or ambitious generally middle-class applicants. Unpopular schools lose income and find it difficult to make the teacher skills and facilities of their more successful rivals. Unpopular schools fail to attract pupils and their funding is reduced.

Question 27

Parental choice

Answer 27

Gerwitz (1995) studied 14 London secondary schools and found that marketization advantages middle class parents who were in a better position to choose ‘good’ schools for their children. She identified 3 types of parents;

Question 28

1.) Privileged-skilled choosers

Answer 28

Professional middle class parents who possessed cultural capital. They knew the important of putting a particular school as first choice. They had time to visit schools and the skills to research options. Their economic capital meant they could afford to move their children around the education system to get the best deal out of it. For example by paying extra travel costs so that children could attend good schools out of their area.

Question 29

2.) Disconnected-local-choosers

Answer 29

working class parents whose lack of cultural capital mean they did not understand how school admissions worked. They were less confident with dealing with schools and less aware of choices open to them. Their lack of economic capital meant their child was restricted to going to the local school due to travel expenses.

Question 30

3.) Semi-skilled choosers

Answer 30

Working class parents who were ambitious for their children. However they too lacked cultural capital and were frustrated by their inability to obtain a good school for their child.

Question 31

Free schools

Answer 31

Allen (2010) argued that research from Sweden where 20% of schools are free schools, shows that they only benefit children from highly educated families. In the UK evidence suggests that free schools take fewer disadvantages pupils than over nearby schools. For example in 2011 only 6.4% of pupils at Bristol Free School were eligible for free school meals compared with 22.5% of pupils across the city as a whole.

Question 32

Privatisation

Answer 32

involved the transfer of public assets such as schools to private companies. Private companies may be involved in building schools, providing supply teachers, work-based learning, careers advice and Ofsted inspection services. Many of these activities are very profitable for the private companies 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 the government.

Question 33

The globalisation of education policy

Answer 33

Many private companies in the education services industry are foreign-owned. The exam board Edexcel is own by the US educational publishing and testing giant Pearson.