educational policy Flashcards
Outline the 1944 Tripartite system
1) Grammar Schools – offered an academic curriculum and access to non-manual jobs and higher education - m/c, passed 11+
2)Secondary Modern Schools – offered a non-academic practical curriculum and access to manual work for pupils who failed the 11+ mainly w/c
3)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
What was the 1944 Education act?
Brought in the tripartite system so children were to be selected and allocated to one of three different types of secondary school, by their aptitudes and abilities - identified by 11+ exam
What was introduced in 1965?
The comprehensive school system - aimed to overcome class divide of tripartite and make education more meritocratic
11+ Grammar and secondary moderns = abolished
Replaced with comprehensive schools all pupils attend
What was the issue with comprehensive schools?
It was left to the local education authority to decide whether to ‘go comprehensive’ - not all did - grammar-secondary modern divide still exists in many areas
Functionalist view of comprehensive schools
- Promotes social integration by bringing children of different social classes to one school
- More meritocratic as it gives pupils a longer period in which to develop and show their abilities
Marxist perspective of comprehensives
- Not meritocratic
- Reproduce class inequality from one gen to the next through the continuation of the practice of streaming and labelling
-Continue to deny working class children equal opportunity
What is meant by ‘Parentocracy’ according to David
- Describes the marketisation of education
- ‘Rule by parents’
- Power shifts away from the producers (teachers and schools) to the consumers (parents) - encouraging diversity, parents have more choice, raises standards
1988 Education reform act
- Marketisation became a central theme of government policy - Thatcher
- . This has created an education market by reducing directstate control over education and increasing competition between schools and parent choice of school
Polices to promote marketisation - New Right
- Publication of league tables and Ofsted inspection reports - rank each school according to its exam performance, info parents need to chose the right school
- Schools can opt. out of local authority control - become an academy
- Introduction of tuition fees for higher education
What do Ball and Whitty say about league tables?
- Marketisation policies such as exam league tables and the funding formula reproduce class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools
What is the ‘funding formula’
- Schools receive funding based on how many pupils they attract (consumers)
- popular schools get more funds and so can afford better-qualified teachers and better facilities
- Unpopular schools lose income
- fail to attract pupils and their
funding is reduced
Gewirtz - Privileged skilled choosers
Privileged-skilled choosers; professional m/c parents, cultural capital, know how school admission system works, economic capital - can afford to move their children to get best deal out of it
Define the terms ‘silt shifting’ and ‘cream skimming’ according to Bartlett
- ‘Good’ schools can avoid taking less able pupils who are likely to get poor results and damage the schools league table position
- ‘Good’ schools can be more selective and recruit high achieving mainly m/c pupils - advantage
Disconnected local choosers
- W/c parents restricted by their lack of cc and ec
- Less aware of the choices open for them
-Distance and travel were major restrictions on their choice of school
Semi skilled choosers
- Mainly w/c, ambitious for their children - no cc and ec
- Had to rely on other people’s opinions of schools
- Frustrated at their inability to get their children into the schools they wanted
