compensatory education policies Flashcards
What is Compensatory Education?
Compensatory education is any type of educational policy that is designed to improve inequalities between social classes, genders and ethnicities.
COMPENSATORY EDUCATION POLICIES
What are the two laws passed relating to gender and what did they rule?
What did they achieve
- 1970 – Equal Pay Act
- 1975 – Sex Discrimination Act
These policies made it illegal to pay women less than men for carrying out the same job role, and also prevented discrimination on the basis of sex (e.g. not hiring somebody purely because they are female).
Achievements
1. The equal pay act reduced the gender pay gap from 30% to 9% (today), which motivates girls to work harder at school as they can recognise their greater opportunities.
2. Feminism would support, especially Liberal Feminists.
COMPENSATORY EDUCATION POLICIES
What was the third policy relating to gender after the two legal policies and what was the purpose?
GIST (Girls Into Science & Technology). This has since been replaced by WISE (Women in Science & Engineering)
- The purpose of these policies were to create equal opportunities of women, which in turn will affect the aspiration of girls in school.
- Involved the organisation visiting schools to encourage more young and ambitious girls to study STEM subjects.
- The purpose of GIST was to encourage more girls to study STEM subjects and pursue careers in non-traditional areas.
However, is GIST/WISE patronising? Should we be focusing more on the underachievement of boys?
COMPENSATORY EDUCATION POLICIES
What was the fourth policy relating to gender?
What did it achieve and what did it introduce to GCSEs?
1988 – National Curriculum
• Reduced students’ ability to choose subjects by making subjects compulsory from the ages of 7-16, including English, Maths and Science.
• Introduced coursework to GCSEs in 1988, though this has since been phased out.
Achievements
• Helped to equalise gender opportunities by making boys and girls study the same subjects, which hadn’t been the case so much with the Tripartite System & Comprehensivisation of schools.
Criticism
• The introduction of coursework raised the achievement of girls.
Coursework disadvantages boys and feminises education.
How can Compensatory Education Policies be used in an essay?
• In a short exam (4 or 6 marks) question about how policies since 1970 have improved opportunities for girls.
• In an essay about gender and achievement. These policies can be used to criticise external or internal factors, to show that external policies can have an impact on encouraging more girls to achieve.
• However – should there be more compensatory education for boys?
What are the three policies Relating to Ethnicity?
• 1980s – Multicultural Education Policies (MCE)
• 2005 – Generating Genius (Tony Sewell)
• 1988 – National Curriculum
Describe the 1980s – Multicultural Education Policies (MCE)
1980s – Multicultural Education Policies (MCE)
The purpose was to promote the achievements of children from minority ethnic groups. Included things like embedding Black History Month in schools and assemblies focused on tolerance.
E.g. Sure Start in the UK, Head Start in the USA.
Describe the 2005 – Generating Genius (Tony Sewell)
Tony Sewell took 40 12-13 year old African-Caribbean boys and mentored them for several years to achieve highly in their GCSEs and get them into studying science at university level. The programme had a high success rate – nearly all the students went to Russell Group universities and 2 went to Cambridge. They were taken to a university in Jamaica to be exposed to what they could do with scientific subjects.
Now, the programme is currently mentoring 900 boys, and is being sponsored by big companies such as L’Oréal to give young black students opportunities for work experience.
Describe the 1988 – National Curriculum
• Made it compulsory for all students to be taught the same thing, regardless of their background.
• The government started to recognise that diversity should be represented in the curriculum, so included a wider range of texts in subjects such as English, for example
What are the positive effects of policies relating to ethnicity
• Minority groups feel that their culture is equally valued, which raises their self-esteem.
• Promotes diversity and inclusion
What are the Negative effects of policies relating to ethnicity
• Do black pupils actually fail because of low self-esteem? Or is it more to do with internal factors like teacher labelling? Can there ever be a policy that removes teacher racism?
• MCE is tokenism, picking out exotic features of minority cultures, whilst ignoring the real cause of underachievement which is institutional racism.
• The New Right argue it encourages cultural divisions. There should be a sense of national identity which can only be encouraged through teaching British History.
• The National Curriculum, while it ensures everyone is taught the same thing, can be considered ethnocentric by sociologists such as Ball and Troyna & Williams.
How can policies relating to ethnicity be used in an essay?
• In a short exam question about how policies since have improved opportunities for ethnic minorities.
• In an essay about ethnicity and achievement. These policies can be used to criticise external or internal factors, to show that external policies can have an impact on encouraging more ethnic minorities to achieve highly.
• However – is there enough being done?
