Education - Educational policy Flashcards
What is educational policy?
A term used to refer to plans and stratagies for education that are introduced by the government
Most educational policies are introduced in response to what? (4)
Equal opportunities
Control of education
Selection and choice
Marketisation and privatisation
What are the three key historical educational policies?
Bonus what date are each
The forster act - 1870
The butler act - 1944
The comprehensive system - 1965
What is meritocracy? (mer-it-toc-racy)
A system where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed
What is the tripartite system? and when was it introduced?
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.
What is marketisation?
Marketisation is the process of introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between suppliers into areas run by the state
What 3 ways has marketisation created an education market?
Reducing direct state control over education
Increasing competition between schools
Increasing parental choice of schools
Marketisation has been a central theme of government policy since the introduction of…
Educational reform act 1988
What is parentocracy?
Parents have power and control over schools
Who supports marketisation and what do they argue?
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
What is it called where each pupil is worth a set amount of money?
Formula funding
Conservative 1988 policies…
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
New Labour 1997 policies…
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
Conservative led coalition 2010 policy…
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
Who came up with the concept of cream skimming and silt shifting?
Bartlett
Cream skimming - good schools can be more selective, choose own customers
Silt shifting - good schools can avoid taking less able pupils
Who studied parental choice?
Gewirtz
What is economic and cultural capital?
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
What type of parents did Gerwitz identify?
Privileged school choosers
Disconnected local choosers
Semi skilled choosers
What New Labour policies reduce inequalities (6)
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
Who believed the new labour policies were a contradiction?
Benn - new labour paradox
What is a coalition government?
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
What three big initatives did the coalition governement introduce?
- One sociologist
Academies
Free schoools
Fragmented centralisation (Ball)
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?
Free school meals
The pupil premium
In what year did the coalition government raise the education participant age to 17, then followed by 18 in what year?
In 2013 - age 17
In 2015 - age 18
What was the acronym for raising school learning age
ROSLA
Who argued that education had an important role to play not only in the economy but as a contribution to ‘national life’ more broadly
R.H Tawney
What is privatisation?
The process of transferring public assets to private companies
How does privatisation link to education?
Private companies are now becoming involved in the state run education system
The privitisation of education has created a new industry referred to as the ESI. What does ESI mean?
Education services industry
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?
Pollack (2004)
Why might globalisation help the privatisation of education?
More multi-cultural - better understanding
What exam board is used as an example for privatisation?
Edexcel
What do Maxists say about the privatisation of education and the profit making business it has created
Strongly against, increases power of bourgeoise
What does GIST stand for?
Girls in to science and technology
What does WISE stand for?
Women into science and engineering
Give 3 ethinicity policies
Assimilation
Multi cultural education
Social inclusion
