Topic 6 - Educational Policy And Inequality

Question 1

What act brought in the introduction of the tripartite system ?

Answer 1

-the 1944 education act brought in the tripartite system

Question 2

What is the tripartite system ?

Answer 2

-the tripartite system is where children were to be selected and allocated to one of three different types of secondary schools , supposedly according to their aptitudes and abilities
-these were to be identified by the eleven plus exam

Question 3

What were the 3 types of schools identified by the tripartite system ?

Answer 3

-grammar schools - offered an academic curriculum and access to non manual jobs and higher education . They were for pupils with academic ability who passed the 11 plus and mainly middle class
-secondary modern schools - offered a non academic practical curriculum and access to manual work for pupils who failed the 11 plus
-Technical schools - existed only in a few areas

Question 4

What was the problem with the tripartite system ?, (it didn’t meet its aim of promoting meritocracy) ?

Answer 4

-rather than promoting meritocracy , the tripartite system and the 11 plus reproduced class inequality by channeling the 2 classes into 2 different types of schools that offered unequal opportunities
-the system also reproduced gender inequality by requiring girls to gain higher marks than boys in the 11 plus exam to obtain a grammar school place.
-also the tripartite system justified inequality through the ideology that ability is inborn . It was thus argues that ability could be measured on early in life through the 11 plus , however , in reality children’s environments greatly affects their chance of success

Question 5

What year was the comprehensive school system introduced in ?

Answer 5

-the comprehensive system was introduced in many areas from 1965 onwards

Question 6

What was the aim of the comprehensive system introduced in 1965 ?

Answer 6

-the comprehensive system aimed to overcome the class divide of the tripartite system and make education more meritocractic

Question 7

What did the comprehensive school system do but what still was the problem with this ?

Answer 7

-the comprehensive school system abolished the 11 plus along with grammar schools and secondary moderns , to be replaced by comprehensive schools that all pupils within the area would attend
-However , it was left to the local eduction authority to decide whether to “go comprehensive “ and not all did so so many grammar and secondary modern schools still exist in many areas

Question 8

What is meant by marketisation ?

Answer 8

-marketisation refers to the process of introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between suppliers into areas run by the state

Question 9

What are 2 ways that marketisation has created an education market ?

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Why do new rights favour marketisation ?

Answer 10

-new rights favour marketisation because they argue that the schools need to attract customers (parents) by competing with each other in the market .
-schools that provide customers with what they want - such as success in exams - will thrive , and those that don’t will “go out of business “

Question 11

What are some policies which help to promote marketisation ?

Answer 11

-publication of league tables and OFSTED inspection reports that rank schools according to exam performance and give parents the information they need to chose the right school.
-Business sponsorship of schools
-open enrolment , allowing successful schools to recruit more pupils
-specialist schools , specialising in IT , Languages etc , to widen parental choice
-Formula funding , where schools receive the same amount of funding for each pupil
-schools having to compete to attract pupils
-avowing parents and others to set up free schools

Question 13

What does David describe marketised education as and what does this mean ?

Answer 13

-David describes marketised education as parentocracy, which means rule by the parents
-this is because marketisation in an eduction market , shifts power away from the producers (teachers and schools) to the consumers (parents)
-they claim that this encourages diversity among schools , gives parents more choice and raises the standards

Question 14

How do critics of marketisation Ball and Whitty ague that in fact marketisation has increased inequalities ?

Answer 14

-Ball and Whitty note how marketisation policies such as exam league tables and funding formulas reproduce class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools

Question 15

What are the 2 things that Bartlett argues the publishing of schools exam results in league tables leads to ?

Answer 15

-cream skimming - Good schools can be more selective , choose their own customers and recruit high achieving mainly middle class pupils , and these pupils therefore gain an advantage
-silt shifting - good schools can avoid taking less able pupils who are likely to get poor results and damage the schools league table position

Question 16

What is meant by formula funding ?

Answer 16

-formula funding- schools are allocated funds by a formula based on how many pupils they attract

Question 17

How does formula funding benefit popular schools ?

Answer 17

-formula funding benefits popular schools because popular schools get more funds and so can afford better qualified teachers and better facilities
-their popularity allows them to be more selective and attract more able or ambitious generally middle class applicants

Question 18

How does formula funding disadvantage unpopular schools ?

Answer 18

-formula funding disadvantages unpopular schools because they lose income and find it difficult to match the teacher skills and facilities of their more successful rivals
-unpopular schools fail to attract pupils and their funding is further reduced

Question 19

Why does marketisation also benefit middle class parents ?

Answer 19

-marketisation also benefits middle class parents , whose economic and cultural capital puts them in a better position to choose good schools for their children

Question 20

What are the 3 types of parents that Gewirtz identifies in her study of parental choice ?

Answer 20

-Privileged skilled choosers
-disconnected local choosers
- semi skilled choosers

Question 21

Gewirtz parental choice study - what is meant by privileged skilled choosers ?

Answer 21

-these were mainly professional middle class parents who used their economic and cultural capital to gain educational capital for their children
-being confident and well educated , they were able to take full advantage of the choices open to them
-these parents possessed cultural capital , they knew how the school admission system works . For example , the importance of putting a particular school as first choice . They had time to visit schools and the skills to research the options available to them.
-their economic capital also meant that 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 their children could attend better schools out of their area

Question 22

Gewirtz parental choice study - what is meant by disconnected local choosers ?

Answer 22

-these were working class parents whose choices were restricted by their lack of economic and cultural capital
-they found it difficult to understand school admission procedures. They were less confident in their dealings with schools and less aware of their choices open to them , and less able to manipulate the system to their own advantage
-distance and cost of travel were major restrictions on their choice of school
-their funds were limited and a place at the nearest school was often the only realistic option for their children

Question 23

Gewirtz parental choice study - what is meant by semi skilled choosers ?

Answer 23

-these parents were also mainly working class , but unlike the disconnected local choosers they were ambitious for their children
-however , they too lacked the cultural capital and found it difficult to make sense of the education market , often having to rely on other peoples opinions about schools
-they were often frustrated at their inability to get their children into the schools they wanted

Question 24

Why does Ball argue that David idea of parentocracy is a myth and who’s study backs up ball?

Answer 24

-not only does marketisation reproduce inequality , it also legitimates it by concealing its true causes and by justifying its existence
-Ball argues that parentocracy (rule by parents) is a myth and not a reality
-parentocracy makes it appear that all parents have the same freedom to choose which school to send their children to
-Gewirtz study shows middle class parents are better able to take advantage of the choices available to them
-the myth of parentocracy makes inequality in education appear fair and inevitable

Question 25

What are some policies which the new labour brought out with the aim of decreasing inequality caused by marketisation ?

Answer 25

-designating some deprived areas as education action zones and providing them with additional resources -the aim higher programme to raise the aspirations of groups who are under represented in higher eduction -education maintenance allowance (EMA’s) - payments to students from low income backgrounds to encourage them to stay on after 16 to gain better qualifications -introduction of the national literacy strategy and reducing primary school class sizes which were a great benefit to disadvantaged groups and so help to reduce inequality -increased funding for state education

Question 26

How does Benn criticise new labours polices which were brought in to reduce inequality caused by marketisation ?

Answer 26

-Benn sees a contradiction between labours policies to tackle inequality and its commitment to marketisation - something she calls the new labour paradox -for example , despite the introduction of the education maintenance allowance to encourage poorer students to stay in education , Labour also introduced tuition fees for higher education which deters them from going to university

Question 27

What government and when were academics introduced ?

Answer 27

-under the conservative government /coalition -2010

Question 28

What are academies ?

Answer 28

-from 2010, all schools were encouraged to leave local authority and become academies -funding was taken from the local authority budgets and given directly to academies by the central government , and academies were given control over their curriculum

Question 29

What are free schools (started in 2010 by conservative government ) ?

Answer 29

-free schools although funded directly by the state , are set up and run by parents , teachers , faith organisations or businesses rather then the local authority

Question 30

How do supporters of free schools believe that they improve educational standards ?

Answer 30

-supporters of free schools claim that they improve educational standards by taking control away from the state and giving power to the parents -free schools , give parents and teachers the opportunity to create a new school if they are unhappy with the state schools in their local area

Question 31

Evaluation of free schools - what did Allen find about free schools which hinders their benefit ?

Answer 31

-Allen argues that the research from Sweden , where 20% of schools are free schools , show that they only benefit highly educated families -therefore increasing inequality rather than decreasing as working class fall further behind

Question 32

What are the 2 things that Ball argues the promotion of academics and free schools has led to ?

Answer 32

-fragmentation - the comprehensive system is being replaced by a patchwork of diverse provision , much of it involving private providers , that leads to greater inequality in opportunities -centralisation of control - the central government alone has the power to allow or require schools to become academies or allow free schools to set up . These schools are funded directly by the government . Their rapid growth has greatly reduced the role of elected local authorities in education

Question 33

What are 2 policies that the conservative government brought in , aimed at reducing inequality ?

Answer 33

-free school meals , for all children in reception , year 1 and 2 -the pupil premium , money that schools receive for each pupil from a disadvantaged background

Question 34

What did OFSTED (2012) find was a problem with pupil premium ?

Answer 34

-OFSTED (2012) found that in many cases the pupil premium isn’t spent on those that it is supposed to help -only 1 in 10 head teachers said that it had significantly changed how they supported pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds

Question 35

What is meant by privatisation ?

Answer 35

-privatisation involves the transfer of public assets such as schools to private companies -in recent years , there has been a trend towards the privatisation of certain aspects of education

Question 36

What is an example of privatisation and globalisation in education exams ?

Answer 36

-many private companies in the education services industry are foreign owned -the exam board edexcel is owned by the US educational publishing and testing Pearson -According to Ball some Pearson GCSE exam answers are now marked in Sydney and Iowa

Question 37

What is meant by the cola-isation of schools ?

Answer 37

-Cola-isation - the private sector is also penetrating education indirectly , for example through vending machines on school premises and the development of brand loyalty through displays of logos and sponsorships

Question 38

Why does Molnar argue colaisation is good in schools ?

Answer 38

-Molnar argues that schools are targeted by private companies because schools are kind of a product endorsement

Question 39

What is meant by education as a commodity ?

Answer 39

-education is being turned into a legitimate object of private profit making , a commodity to be bought and sold in an education market

Question 40

How do assimilation policies in the 1960s and 1970s raise the achievement of ethnic minorities ?

Answer 40

-assimilation policies in the 1960s and 70s focused on the need for pupils from minority ethnic groups to assimilate into mainstream British culture as a way of raising their achievement , especially by helping those of whom English is not their first language - a main example is compensatory education

Question 41

How do multicultural educational policies help to raise achievement of minority ethnic groups ?

Answer 41

-multicultural educational policies through the 80s and 90s aimed to promote the achievement of children from minority ethnic groups by valuing all cultures in the school curriculum , thereby raising minority pupils self esteem and achievements

Question 42

How does Mirza criticise educational policies ?

Answer 42

-Mirza argues that instead of policies tackling the structural causes of ethnic inequality such as poverty and racism , educational policy still takes a soft approach that focuses on culture , behaviour and the home

Question 43

How do critics criticise assimilation policies ?

Answer 43

-However critics argue that some minority groups who are at risk of underachieving already speak English and that the real cause of their underachievement lies in poverty or racism