Education - Educational policy

Question 1

What is educational policy?

Answer 1

A term used to refer to plans and stratagies for education that are introduced by the government

Question 2

Most educational policies are introduced in response to what? (4)

Answer 2

Equal opportunities
Control of education
Selection and choice
Marketisation and privatisation

Question 3

What are the three key historical educational policies?
Bonus what date are each

Answer 3

The forster act - 1870
The butler act - 1944
The comprehensive system - 1965

Question 4

What is meritocracy? (mer-it-toc-racy)

Answer 4

A system where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed

Question 5

What is the tripartite system? and when was it introduced?

Answer 5

Introduced in 1944, had two main types of secondary school (grammar and secondary modern) with selection by the 11+ exam.

Most middle-class pupils attended the grammar school, whereas most working-class pupils attended the secondary modern.

Question 6

What is marketisation?

Answer 6

Marketisation is the process of introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between suppliers into areas run by the state

Question 7

What 3 ways has marketisation created an education market?

Answer 7

Reducing direct state control over education

Increasing competition between schools

Increasing parental choice of schools

Question 8

Marketisation has been a central theme of government policy since the introduction of…

Answer 8

Educational reform act 1988

Question 9

What is parentocracy?

Answer 9

Parents have power and control over schools

Question 10

Who supports marketisation and what do they argue?

Answer 10

New right - in an education market, power shifts away from the producers to the consumers

They claim that this encourages diversity among schools, gives parents more choice and raises standards

Question 11

What is it called where each pupil is worth a set amount of money?

Answer 11

Formula funding

Question 12

Conservative 1988 policies…

Answer 12

Open enrolment (can be selective) – abolished catchment areas, parents can choose which schools to send their child to

Publication of exam league tables/OFSTED reports - All OFSTED reports have to be out publicly for everyone to have access to, creates competition between suppliers, want to send their child to the best school to get the best grades too

Formula funding

Schools competing to attract pupils - only way to gain money

Question 13

New Labour 1997 policies…

Answer 13

Specialist schools – claim specialist status, extra income for the area, consumer choice

Opting out of local authority control (academies) - Academies controls itself, funding from government, failing schools to become an academy, up until this point all schools run by local authority/council

Business sponsorship of schools – private businesses sponsoring schools, competition between suppliers, better resources

Introduction of tuition fees for higher education - create competition at uni level

Question 14

Conservative led coalition 2010 policy…

Answer 14

Introduction of free schools (i.e run by parents)

• Not being happy with the schools in the local area
• Aimed at parents
• Funded directly by the government
• Tends to be religious organisations

Question 15

Who came up with the concept of cream skimming and silt shifting?

Answer 15

Bartlett
Cream skimming - good schools can be more selective, choose own customers
Silt shifting - good schools can avoid taking less able pupils

Question 16

Who studied parental choice?

Answer 16

Gewirtz

Question 17

What is economic and cultural capital?

Answer 17

Economic capital - a build up of wealth/financial resources
- middle class have economic capital, working class lack it

Cultural capital - a build up of cultural knowledge and skills
- middle class have cultural capital, working class lack it

Question 18

What type of parents did Gerwitz identify?

Answer 18

Privileged school choosers
Disconnected local choosers
Semi skilled choosers

Question 19

What New Labour policies reduce inequalities (6)

Answer 19

Aim higher programme aimed at w/c students to give them more access to higher education (guess speakers, open events at uni, residential trips to uni)

Education maintenance allowance - aimed at post 16 students, weekly payment to lower class students, have to attend to receive payment, transport/resources/trips

National literacy strategy - aimed at primary education, to improve reading and writing skills of w/c, class sizes capped, reading hours,

Increased funding for state education - more money into education, more resources/teachers

City academies - w/c/underperforming schools pushed to be an academy, help to improve education for students, change image of school means more children, however
behaviour problems still persisted, same intake of children

Education action zones - areas with a large number of underperforming schools, get extra funding, deprived areas

Question 20

Who believed the new labour policies were a contradiction?

Answer 20

Benn - new labour paradox

Question 21

What is a coalition government?

Answer 21

Government formed jointly by more than one political party. Parties may decide to form a coalition government if there is a hung parliment where no single party has a clear working majority in the HOC following general election

Question 22

What three big initatives did the coalition governement introduce?
- One sociologist

Answer 22

Academies
Free schoools
Fragmented centralisation (Ball)

Question 23

Whilst marketisation policies from the coalition again acted to increase social class inequalities, like New Labour they also introduced policies to try and reduce this. What were they?

Answer 23

Free school meals
The pupil premium

Question 24

In what year did the coalition government raise the education participant age to 17, then followed by 18 in what year?

Answer 24

In 2013 - age 17
In 2015 - age 18

Question 25

What was the acronym for raising school learning age

Answer 25

ROSLA

Question 26

Who argued that education had an important role to play not only in the economy but as a contribution to ‘national life’ more broadly

Answer 26

R.H Tawney

Question 27

What is privatisation?

Answer 27

The process of transferring public assets to private companies

Question 28

How does privatisation link to education?

Answer 28

Private companies are now becoming involved in the state run education system

Question 29

The privitisation of education has created a new industry referred to as the ESI. What does ESI mean?

Answer 29

Education services industry

Question 30

It is argued that the boundary between private and public is now becoming blurred with many heads and senior officials from local authorities, leaving to set up or work for private companies

Who argues that this allows private companies to gain insider knowledge to help them with contracts and increase profits?

Answer 30

Pollack (2004)

Question 31

Why might globalisation help the privatisation of education?

Answer 31

More multi-cultural - better understanding

Question 32

What exam board is used as an example for privatisation?

Answer 32

Edexcel

Question 33

What do Maxists say about the privatisation of education and the profit making business it has created

Answer 33

Strongly against, increases power of bourgeoise

Question 34

What does GIST stand for?

Answer 34

Girls in to science and technology

Question 35

What does WISE stand for?

Answer 35

Women into science and engineering

Question 36

Give 3 ethinicity policies

Answer 36

Assimilation
Multi cultural education
Social inclusion