EDUCATION 1.6 : EDUCATIONAL POLICIES

Question 1

what is the Tripartite system?

Answer 1

-Three types of secondary education; grammar schools for the top 15%, secondary moderns for those who failed the 11+, technical schools for the more vocational students

Question 2

what are criticisms of the tripartite system

Answer 2

-Labels children at 11, little mobility between schools, socially divisive (coaching etc), grammar schools better funded, girls had to get a higher score to pass

Question 3

what is the Comprehensive system?

Answer 3

-(from 1965 onwards) and brought in by a Labour government to try and end the class divide

Question 4

Percentage of children in comprehensives by 1978:

Answer 4

-80%

Question 5

Advantages of comprehensives:

Answer 5

-Less class divisive as all classes socialised and worked together, no academic test so avoidance of labelling as ‘failures’

Question 6

Disadvantages of comprehensives

Answer 6

-Dependent on area; working and middle class areas, still divisions in streaming, but with mixed ability pupils are held back or struggle

Question 7

what do functionalists think about the comprehensive system?

Answer 7

-AGREE: promotes social cohesion

Question 8

what do marxists think about the comprehensive system?

Answer 8

-DISAGREE: streaming & labelling performs function needed to reproduce inequality = creates myth of meritocracy

Question 9

what is Marketisation?

Answer 9

-Schools should compete against one another to attract the most students.

Question 10

which sociological perspectives favour marketisation?

Answer 10

• THE NEW RIGHT + NEOLIBERALISTS

Question 11

what is Parentocracy?

Answer 11

-The shifting of power from producers of education to the consumers (parents) which will encourage diversity and raise standards

Question 12

1988 Education Reform Act:

Answer 12

-National Curriculum, SATs, National League Tables, local management of schools, formula funding, open enrolment and parental choice, OFSTED
-Marketisation, schools should compete to attract students eg. by using league tables.

Question 13

who was in favour of parentocracy? (Advantages of 1988 Act)

Answer 13

-DAVID(1993) marketized education is a parentocracy (owned by parents= power shifts to consumers= diversity= higher standards

Question 14

what is ‘cream-skimming’ ?

Answer 14

• ‘good’ school = more selective + admit m/c to maintain their ‘high’ rankings of their school

Question 15

what is ‘silt-shifting’ ?

Answer 15

-‘good’ schools avoid taking less able pupils who are more likely to get poor results and damage rankings

Question 16

how do league tables enable ‘cream-skimming’ and ‘silt-shifting’ to take place?

Answer 16

-w/c forced into inadequate schools where they will underachieve and the cycle continues with position of these schools not improving

Question 17

what is the funding formula and what are it’s impacts?

Answer 17

-schools receive funding based on no. of students they attract
-popular school will receive the most funding and so less popular schools who need extra funding don’t get it
-more competition-orientated= more segregation with class backgrounds

Question 18

Disadvantages of 1988 Act

Answer 18

Gerwitz; myth of parentocracy. Catchment areas most important, ‘pushy’ middle class parents can work the system but not the working class

Question 19

(Gerwitz) what are 3 types of parents?

Answer 19

-privileged-skilled choosers: working professional m/c who have economic and cultural capital who will move to a better school (‘selection by mortgage’)
-disconnected-local choosers: w/c that find it difficult to understand, engage w/ choice and admission processes so don’t focus on the results of the school/ distance/ travel
-semi-skilled chooser; w/c who have ambitions for their children, have a lack of understanding so get frustrated at the barriers

Question 20

The Myth of Parentocracy:

Answer 20

-They talk about parents choosing but it only relates to MC parents who have more capital and better able to make decisions.
-Evaluation: Choice; Better schools are likely to be over subscribed, but if places are available MC pupils will get it. Schools have choice, but only choose ideal students (white MC). Ball (2003) choice isn’t equal its class.

Question 21

1997 New Labour policies

Answer 21

-Aimed to promote diversity and choice, similar to the conservative policies, targeting to support disadvantaged groups.

Question 22

examples of 1997 New Labour policies:

Answer 22

-provided additional resources to deprived areas (EDUCATIONAL ACTION ZONES)
-raise aspirations of groups who are unrepresented
-payments (EMAs) to students from low-income background
-increased funding for state education

Question 23

what is the ‘New Labour Paradox’ ?

Answer 23

-Benn(2012) labour introduced policies which deterred students from tuition fees and to abolish fee-paying private schools

Question 24

what are Education Action Zones
(EAZ’s)

Answer 24

-Provides areas with high levels of unemployment, social and cultural deprivation, an investment to boost educational resources.

-CRITICISM-DOESN’T TACKLE PROBLEM OF MATERIAL DEPRIVATION AND POVERTY, MAY FAIL WITHOUT LOCAL CONSULTATION.

Question 25

what is Educational Maintenance Allowance (EMA)

Answer 25

-Provides students from poorer background with much needed income to help with studies. May persuade them to stay in education longer, not seek immediate gratification.

-CRITICISM-CAN LEAD TO MANY CLASSROOMS BEING FILLED WITH UNMOTIVATED STUDENTS, ONLY THERE TO COLLECT EMA.

Question 26

Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition 2010 :

Answer 26

-all schools to apply for academy status(first intro by labour gov) & encouraged parents, volunteers, religions to create free schools (middle class?)
Unis can charge £9000 for tuition, student loan changed (WC debt aversion) EMA scrapped, pupil premium instead (WC disadvantage)
Free school meals

CRITICISM- BALL- INTRO OF ACADEMIES AND FREE SCHOOLS LED TO FRAGMENTATION OF EDUCATION PROVISION, NOT ALL AREAS OFFER SAME EXPERIENCE.

Question 27

ACADEMIES:

Answer 27

• they are completely independent from local councils
• set there own term dates, admission policies, staff pay levels etc
• now have control over the school curriculum
  -in 2017 68% secondary school converted to academy status

Question 28

FREE SCHOOLS:

Answer 28

-A non-profit making independent state funded school which is free to attend
-Independently ran by parents, teachers, faith organisations and businesses to improve educational standards
-ALLEN (2010) 20% free schools in Sweden only benefit children from highly educated families.
-In the UK free schools take less disadvantaged pupils overall compared to other types of schools

Question 29

what is ‘fragmentation’ ?

Answer 29

BALL: the comprehensive system being replaced by a patchwork of diverse provision (greater inequality in opportunity)

Question 30

what is ‘centralisation’ ?

Answer 30

BALL: the gov. has control to encourage schools to change into academies and free schools so they fund them directly = removing control from local authorities

Question 31

what are two coalition policies aimed at reducing inequality?

Answer 31

• free-school meals (every child from reception till yr2)
  -pupil premium (extra funding for those disadvantaged)

Question 32

why have the coalition policies not been successful?

Answer 32

• OFSTED: 1/10 headteachers only supported the disadvantaged
  -AUSTERITY: cuts ben made to the public sector (less money in education) and tuition fees had increased by 3x

Question 33

What is privatisation?

Answer 33

-where services which were once owned and provided by the state are transferred to private companies with the transfer of educational assets and management to private companies.

Question 34

What is an argument against the privatisation of education?

Answer 34

-An increasing inequality of educational provision as private companies pick the best schools to take over

Question 35

ASPECT OF PRIVATISATION: blurring the public/private boundary

Answer 35

-many senior public sector workers leave to go to private sector for better pay e.g. doctors
-POLLOCK(2004) : shows flow of personnel allows companies to buy ‘insider knowledge’ to help win contracts

Question 36

ASPECT OF PRIVATISATION: globalisation of educational policy

Answer 36

-many private education companies are foreign
- increased competition for jobs abroad meant the new Labour government increased spending on education
- increasing cultural globalisation challenges the relevance of a national curriculum
- increasing migration has meant that education is now more multicultural

Question 37

ASPECT OF PRIVATISATION: the cola-isation of schools

Answer 37

-private sector is also infiltrating schools indirectly through marketing their products with their brand e.g. by vending machines
-MOLNAR(2005) schools targeted by private companies because of their product endorsements
-BEDER (2009) UK families spent £110,000 in Tesco for single computer in school

Question 38

ASPECT OF PRIVATISATION: education as a commodity

Answer 38

-education moved from state to private control and turned into a ‘legitimate object of private profit-making’- a commodity to be bought and sold -> education being subject to business practices and financial logic rather than the pupil’s wants/ interests
-BALL: privatisation is shaping educational policy!

Question 39

ASSIMULATION POLICIES:

Answer 39

60s & 70s trying to get ethnic minority pupils to assimilate into British culture to raise achievement
-compensatory education is not always the reason for underachievement

Question 40

MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION POLICIES

Answer 40

80s and 90s have a variety of cultures in the curriculum to increase attainment (high self-esteem)
-NEW RIGHT: MCE perpetuates cultural division-> shared national identity

Question 41

GENDER POLICIES:

Answer 41

-GIRLS LARGELY EXCLUDED FROM HIGH EDUCATION
-tripartite system shows girls needed to achieve a higher mark than boys to obtain a place in grammar school
-GIT introduced girls to doing non-traditional subjects