Educational Policy And Inequality (Marketisation)

Question 1

how has marketisation produce an education market (parents shop around for the best education)?

Answer 1

• reducing direct state control over education
• increasing both competition between schools and
  parental choice of school.

Question 2

What policies were introduced to promote marketisation?

Answer 2

• Publication of league tables and Ofsted inspection reports that rank each school according to its exam
  performance and give parents the information they need
  to choose the right school.
• Specialist schools that have their individual curriculum, specialising in faith, IT, languages etc, to
  widen parental choice.

Question 3

Who coins the term parentocracy (ruled by the parents), where power shifts away from the producers (school + teachers) to the consumers (Parents)?

Answer 3

DAVID

Question 4

EVALUATION: criticism for marketisation, and who does it?

Answer 4

BALL AND WHITTY:
marketisation policies (such as exam league tables and the
funding formula) reproduce class inequalities by creating
inequalities between schools.

Question 5

Who discusses cream-skimming and silt-shifting?

Answer 5

BARTLETT

Question 6

What is cream-skimming?

Answer 6

‘Good’ schools can be more selective (success breeds success) choose their own customers and recruit high achieving, mainly middle-class pupils. As a result, these pupils gain an advantage.

Question 7

What is silt-shifting?

Answer 7

‘Good’ schools can avoid taking less able pupils who are likely to get poor results and damage the
school’s league table position.

Question 8

What does good attraction to schools from League tables mean that school are able to do, according to BARTLETT?

Answer 8

cream-skimming and silt-shifting

Question 9

What is the funding formula, and how does it affect popular and unpopular schools?

Answer 9

Schools are allocated funds by a formula based on how many pupils they attract.
- meaning, popular schools with more pupils get more funds and so can afford better-qualified teachers and better facilities.
- and, unpopular schools lose income and find it difficult to match the teacher skills and facilities of their more successful rivals.

Question 10

What are the 3 types of parents when choosing schools, according to GERWITZ?

Answer 10

1) privilege-skilled choosers
2) disconnected-local choosers
3) semi-skilled choosers

Question 11

Who are the privilege-skilled choosers?

Answer 11

• professional m/c parents
• use their ECONOMIC CAPITAL (able to afford to move to catchment areas with the best schools on the League Tables)
• use their CULTURAL CAPITAL (knowing how the admissions systems work) to gain educational capital for their children.

Question 12

Who are the disconnected-local choosers?

Answer 12

• w/c parents
• lack of ECONOMIC CAPITAL (Distance and cost of travel were major restrictions on their
  choice of school)
• lack of CULTURAL CAPITAL (did not understand the enrolment process)

Question 13

Who are the semi-skilled choosers?

Answer 13

• w/c parents
• ambitious for their child’s academic achievement
• lack of CULTURAL CAPITAL (did not understand the enrolment process) so they rely on people’s opinions

Question 14

Who discusses that differences
in parents’ economic and cultural capital lead to class differences in how far they can exercise choice of secondary school, as well as the 3 types of parents?

Answer 14

GERWITZ

Question 15

Who discusses the myth of parentocracy?

Answer 15

BALL

Question 16

What is the myth of parentocracy?

Answer 16

• marketisation gives the appearance of a ‘parentocracy’ (parent’s have the power in choosing schools because they’re the consumer)
• However, Ball argues that parentocracy is a myth, not a reality. it disguises the fact that not all parents have the same freedom to choose which school to send their children to because of the lack of CULTURAL and ECONOMIC CAPITAL

Question 17

What marketisation policies have been introduced by New Labour (1997-2010) to reduce inequality?

Answer 17

• The Aim Higher programme to raise the aspirations of groups who are under-represented in higher education.
• the NATIONAL LITERACY STRATEGY ( literacy and numeracy hours, and reducing primary school class sizes, which is a greater benefit to disadvantaged groups and so help to reduce inequality.