Ed 2: Ball, Bowe and Gerwitz

Question 1

D: What educational policy are BBG criticising?

E: What is marketisation?

C: What is cultural capital?

Answer 1

D: The 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA)

E: Marketisation turned education into a product that could be consumed by students and parents. It means that schools can be chosen, like a product when shopping.

C: Cultural capital is Pierre Bourdieu’s concept- it’s the amount of dominant (middle class) tools a person has available to them (accent, dress, attitudes, hobbies, etc)

Question 2

D: Did education become more or less equal after the 1988 ERA?

E: What 3 types of choosers did BBG identify?

C: How might a parent ‘work the system’?

Answer 2

D: Less equal, it did not drive up standards for all.

E: Privileged skilled choosers (middle class)
semi-skilled choosers (working class with high aspirations) and disconnected choosers (working class)

C: By moving closer to the best schools, by using contacts to help with applications, by attending a Church to get into a good faith school, etc.

Question 3

D: How many schools did BBG include in their study?

E: What were their 3 types of research?

C: What is it called when 3 types of research is used, and what is the benefit of doing this?

Answer 3

D: 15

E: Observation- visiting schools and attending meetings.
Interviews with teachers, 150 parents and some primary head teachers
Secondary sources- Local authority and school documents.

C: Triangulation: it increases the validity and representativeness.

Question 4

D: How does wealth (economic capital) assist middle class parents gaining access to the best schools?

E: Name 3 policies that were part of the 1988 ERA that made schools compete with each other.

C: Name 3 factors that would prevent disconnected/ working class choosers from getting their child into good schools.

Answer 4

D: Houses in catchment areas of good/ outstanding schools cost more money. The middle class can afford to move into these areas, or pay for the transport.

E: League tables, Ofsted, Open enrolment, formula funding.

C: Cost of housing, transport and uniform.
Not understanding league tables. Not knowing how schools decide who to allow access to. Not having the confidence to challenge decisions on appeal.

Question 5

D: Who did schools start to focus their resources (teachers, classrooms, equipment) on?

E: What did schools reintroduce more frequently after the 1988 ERA?

C: What are the consequences of the way schools were spending their funding?

Answer 5

D: Middle class students

E: Setting and streaming, to get the best out of the top students so that their league tables for A*-C results looked better.

C: Schools spent their money on buildings, equipment, advertising, websites, glossy brochures to appeal to m/c pupils- rather than spending it on the poorer pupils who needed the funding.