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social policy Flashcards

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1
Q

What is a social policy?

A

a plan/ action made by a state agency to change a social problem

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2
Q

What social policy was introduced in 1880? What were they taught?

A

compulsory education to 10yrs old
taught domestic or technical skills according to gender roles, basic skills and religion

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3
Q

What social policy was introduced in 1944?

A

Education Act

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4
Q

What did the Education Act aim to do?

A

tackle one of the five evils from the Beveridge report
abolish inequality
help rebuild UK after the war

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5
Q

What did the Education Act change/introduce?

A

compulsory education to 14yrs old
tripartite system
11+ exam

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6
Q

What schools were in the tripartite system? What were the differences between?

A

technical + secondary modern - practical and vocational subjects- led to low skilled jobs
grammar - academic subjects - led to uni or high skilled jobs

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7
Q

How did you get into grammar schools in the Education Act?

A

pass the 11+ exam - measured innate ability
20% people passed

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8
Q

What was a strength of the Education Act?

A

helped working class achieve status - reinforce meritocracy

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9
Q

What are some criticisms of the Education Act?

A

technical schools too expensive
if fail 11+ labelled as a failure
working class often not allowed to sit 11+
11+ unreliable and invalid - wrote in elaborate code, unable to measure innate IQ, girls need higher pass rate
not all places had grammar schools - 12% grammar schools vs 40% in other areas

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10
Q

What social policy was introduced in 1965?

A

Comprehensive Education Act

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11
Q

What was the aim of the Comprehensive Education Act?

A

to encourage meritocracy and allow working class to have same opportunities as middle class
to follow a broader curriculum

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12
Q

What did the Comprehensive Education Act change/introduce?

A

abolish tripartite system
abolish selection of pupils at 11yrs old
educate in the same school type

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13
Q

What was a strength of the Comprehensive Education Act?

A

recognised that children develop at different ages

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14
Q

What are some criticisms of the Comprehensive Education Act?

A

catchment areas separate social classes
7% privately educated, 5% attend grammar
setting and streaming replaced inequality though different schools to inside the schools

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15
Q

What theorists don’t like the Comprehensive Education Act?

A

New Right
lacks discipline (Willis L2L)
poor results
no incentive to improve the standard of education

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16
Q

When was the conservative government in power?

A

1979-1997
2010-2024

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17
Q

What did the conservative government want to do to the education system?

A

market forces should guide society- consumers choose
all schools should be the same and work hard to attract students by raising their standards

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18
Q

What was the Conservative governments 2 policies? (1979-1997)

A

new vocationalism
Education Reform Act (1988)

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19
Q

What was the aim of the new vocationalism policy?

A

tackle youth unemployment of 3 million
schools blamed for not teaching work skills

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20
Q

What did the new vocationalism policy change/introduce?

A

NVQs - job specific qualifications
GNVQs - alternative to academic qualifications
apprenticeships - college/work training with NVQs
YTS - Youth Training Schemes - 1-2 yrs work based training for school leavers - £35 per week

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21
Q

What is a strength of the new vocationalism policy?

A

reduced crime- kept young people off the streets

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22
Q

What are some weaknesses of the new vocationalism policy?

A

children are cheap labour (reserve army)
masks unemployment figures- classed as in training not unemployed
no proof that schools don’t teach work skills - unemployment is from lack of jobs, not skill
YTS was sex stereotyped (Buswell) - reinforce gender roles - reinforce women’s low paid work - 94% female in hairdressing, 99% male in construction

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23
Q

When was the Education Reform Act introduced?

A

1988

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24
Q

What was the Education Reform Act’s aim?

A

marketisation - improve schools by increasing competition
schools funding cut if underperforming
parentocracy - increase the choice for parents

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25
What did the Education Reform Act change/introduce?
testing national curriculum league tables opting out open enrolment
26
How did the Education Reform Act change testing in school? Why were they introduced?
introduced SATs at 7, 11, 14 GCSEs at 16 , A Levels monitor school performance objectively
27
How did the Education Reform Act change the curriculum in school? Why were they introduced?
nationalise the curriculum - all schools teach the same thing make standardised comparisons
28
What did the Education Reform Act's league tables do? Why were they introduced?
schools test results published to help drive up competition + inform parents on the best schools in their area (parentocracy) Ofsted (1992/3) inspections to ensure quality of the schools
29
What was the Education Reform Act's opting out? Why were they introduced?
schools were able to opt out of local authority control - manage own budget, decisions and pupils schools ran by local authority - no incentive to improve individually
30
What was the Education Reform Act's open enrolment? Why were they introduced?
parents able to send child to any local state school parentocracy - ability to make informed choice
31
What is a strength of the Education Reform Act?
school results improved
32
What are some weaknesses of the Education Reform Act?
significant differences in gender, class, ethnicity results tests increase stress on students + teachers - high staff turnover in deprived areas league tables are counterproductive- encourage cheating & low ability barred from taking exams + put into easy, low status subjects reinforce class inequality- MC able to put children into best schools
33
What are some social policies that support marketisation?
national curriculum, testing league tables, Ofsted funding formulas tuition fees for uni academisation business sponsorship of schools free schools (made by parents)
34
Why does marketisation reinforce class inequality according to Gerwitz?
3 types of choosers: privileged chooser- MC, uses economic + cultural capital to get child into better schools semi-skilled chooser - WC, ambitious for child but lack material+ cultural capital to get into better schools wanted disconnected chooser - WC, no knowledge of school ratings, choose the closest school MC able to get into best school- leaves WC in lower schools
35
Why does the Education Reform Act's funding formula create vicious/ virtuous circles?
vicious: school gets bad results > decrease in funding > school becomes less popular > good students move to better schools > school gets bad students from good schools > school gets bad results virtuous: school gets good results > increase funding > school is popular > silt shift bad students > cream skim pupils
36
What are some criticisms of marketisation (New Right)?
don't pay for school so can't truly be a market league tables encourage teachers to cheat ERA introduced to reduce power of labour councils over schools almost no choice for parents between schools class inequality reinforced - MC and WC separated by being able to get into better schools in better areas made school divisive + competitive
37
What years were New Labour in power/ government?
1997-2010
38
What policies did New Labour introduce?
specialist schools city academies sure start centres Education Maintenance Allowance
39
Why did New Labour introduce specialist school (aim of the policy)?
continue with marketisation and parentocracy by giving parents more info to what a school is expert in
40
What did New Labour's specialist schools policy introduce/change?
make schools that an expert in a subject area - eg. maths, english, PE, computer science
41
What was a strength of specialist schools?
additional funding helped schools improve facilities
42
What was a weakness of specialist schools?
schools often weren't an expert in the area given funding to improve in that area but gave a false impression to parents
43
Why did New Labour introduce city academies (policy aim)?
to improve standards in deprived, WC areas - London, Manchester, Birmingham
44
What did New Labour introduce/ change through the city academies?
the deprived schools in London, Manchester or Birmingham get more funding, new super heads and expert teachers schools ran themselves independently with direct govt. funding
45
What was a strength of New Labour's city academies policy?
behaviour rigorously enforced schools changed from the least successful to the most - eg. Mossbourne Academy - headteacher went on to run Ofsted
46
What was a weakness of New Labour's city academies policy?
schools still able to silt shift students weakened the power of local govt.
47
Why did New Labour introduce sure start centres?
to boost WC achievement level- 18 month learning gap between WC and MC children
48
What did New Labour's sure start centres do?
offer childcare, parental advice + employment coaching to WC parents 2010 peak had 3,600 centres with a budget of £1.8 billion
49
What is a strength of New Labour's sure start centres?
had a positive impact on WC children's SATs at 7 yrs old
50
What is a weakness of New Labour's sure start centres?
MC mothers used the centres as a form of free childcare and intimidated WC mothers + made them leave the groups - largely closed since 2010
51
Why did New Labour introduce the Education Maintenance Allowance?
to boost WC participation in 6th form + Uni wanted to increase WC participation of higher education to 50%
52
What did New Labour's Education Maintenance Allowance introduce/change?
gave £10-30 a week to 6th form students who met their deadlines and achieved good grades
53
What is a strength of New Labour's Education Maintenance Allowance?
met the hidden costs of education
54
What is a weakness of New Labour's Education Maintenance Allowance?
didn't have to be spent of educational resources
55
What 5 policies did the conservative government introduce? (2010- 2024)
treble tuition fees to £9000 pupil premium free schools A Level and GCSE Reform - 2016 expansion of academies
56
Why did the conservative government treble tuition fees to £9000
to further the marketisation of education encourage weaker universities to improve so they could charge more money for the course as better universities
57
What is a strength to the conservative government trebling tuition fees to £9000?
the most 2:1 and 1st level degrees have been awarded
58
What are some weaknesses to the conservative government trebling tuition fees to £9000?
most universities charge the full fee even if they are weak students have been turned into commodities (marxists) - focus on money instead of requirements to meet societies needs (functionalist) universities focus on accommodation and facilities not education competition with foreign students have been heightened
59
Why did the conservative government introduce pupil premium?
to boost the attainment of students - link between deprivation and underperformance
60
What did the conservatives pupil premium introduce/change?
removed labour's EMA gave schools £900-2400 to spend on student eligible for pupil premium if in care, adopted, on free school meals or income support
61
What are the weaknesses to conservative's pupil premium?
most schools do not use it on students but for school costs because of funding cuts - 9% decrease since 2010 most parents aren't aware of money given
62
Why did the conservatives introduce free schools?
to encourage parentocracy allow parents to raise standards of their child's education to increase local competition
63
What were the conservatives free schools?
schools set up by parents or businesses free from local authority but funded by the government
64
What are weaknesses of the conservatives free schools?
mostly have been overtook by academies under 3% of schools are free schools parents use material + cultural capital to exclude WC- PE lessons include archery, horse riding, yoga not football, rounders ect.
65
What is the national average percentage of students on pupil premium per school? What is it for free schools?
national average = 21% free schools = 3.6%
66
Why did the conservatives introduce the A Level and GCSE Reform?
teachers helping students too much with coursework to get them higher on league tables resit culture to get higher grades invalid results threatened parentocracy
67
What did the conservatives A Level and GCSE Reform introduce/change?
now are 2 year linear courses most coursework changed and changed to controlled tests GCSEs graded 1-9
68
What are strengths of the conservative A Level and GCSE Reform?
1-9 grading allowed top achievers (9= A**) to be filtered to the top - role allocation- functionalism
69
How many state schools are now academies? What government expanded them?
80% conservative- 2010- 2024
70
What is globalisation? Who says this?
Giddens - the increasing interconnectedness of societies
71
What are the 3 globalisation social policies?
competition with international students (Kelly) commodification of students (Ball) multi-cultural curriculum (Holborn)
72
What does Kelly say influences education policies?
competition with other countries - need skilled workers to keep the UK in the G7
73
What league table ranks students internationally?
PISA - Programme for International Student Assessment
74
What did Michael Gove use to justify more rigorous testing?
falling position on PISA tables - too many pupils underperforming
75
What did Michael Gove use to justify the expansion of free schools and academies?
schools in Finland and Singapore outperforming UK
76
What changes to the curriculum were made to compete with international students?
compulsory teaching computer coding - growing market
77
What were the PISA rankings in reading over the New Labour, Coalition and Conservative governments? (2009, 2015, 2018)
New Labour (2009) = 25th Coalition (2015) = 22nd Conservative (2018) = 18th
78
What does Ball say education policies are used to do?
commodify students
79
How are students commodified?
tuition fees for university
80
What problem has the commodification of students brought for UK pupils? What stats to prove this?
have to compete with international students 70% say tuition is too high 20% say they would move abroad if cheaper
81
Why may functionalists not like the commodification of students?
challenges meritocracy - foreign students have lower acceptance grades because they pay more - not because of talent/hard work
82
What does Holborn say globalisation has led to?
a multi- cultural curriculum
83
What aspects of education is multi-cultural?
R.E - have to teach 2 faiths not just Christianity geography - indigenous cultures
84
What percentage of the UK is white? How many Christians practise? (2001 Census)
81% white 11% of Christians practise
85
How has multi-cultural curriculums benefited vulnerable groups?
by increasing the inequality between students prioritising performance of all groups

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