5.6 Educational Policy (Studies)

Question 1

Ford (1969)

Answer 1

Found little mixing between middle-class and working-class children largely due to streaming.

Question 2

David (1993)

Answer 2

Describes marketised education as a ‘parentocracy’ This literally means ‘rule by parents’.

Question 3

Ball (1994) and Whitty (1998)

Answer 3

Note how marketisation policies such as exam league tables and the funding formula reproduce class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools

Question 4

Bartlett (1993)

Answer 4

• Publishing league tables ensures that schools that achieve good results are in demand, because parents are attracted to those with good league table rankings.
• This encourages ‘cream skimming’ and ‘silt shifting’

Question 5

Institute for Public Policy Research (2012)

Answer 5

Found that competition oriented schools such as Britain’s education system produce more segregation between children of different social backgrounds.

Question 6

Gerwitz

Answer 6

• Study of 14 london secondary schools
• 3 types of parent
• In practice, middle class parents possess cultural and economic capital and have more choice than working class parents

Question 7

Benn

Answer 7

• Sees a contradiction between Labour’s commitment to tackle inequality and its commitment to marketisation
• This can be seen through the introduction of EMAs to encourage students to stay on in higher education after 16 and the introduction of tuition fees that may deter pupils from staying on.