Education: Educational Policy Flashcards
1
Q
[🟠] what is educational policy ?
A
Refers to the plans and strategies for education introduced by the government
2
Q
[🟠] Which issues are educational policies a response to?
A
- Equal opportunities
- Selection and choice
- Control of education
- Privatisation and marketisation
3
Q
[🟠] what was education like in the late 18th and early 19th centuries ?
A
- no state schools, education was available only to a minority
- fee-paying schools for the wealthy, or by the churches and charities fora few of the poor
4
Q
[🟠] How did industrialisation change education ?
A
- Industrialisation increased the need for an educated workforce
- late 19th century the state became more involved in education
- the state made schooling compulsory from the ages of 5 to 13 in 1880 ( rose to 16 in 1973)
5
Q
[🟠] the inequality of compulsory schooling
A
- type of education children received depended on their class background, it didn’t change people’s ascribed position
- M/C: given academic curriculum to prepare them for careers in the professions/ office work.
- W/C: given basic numeracy and literacy skills needed for routine factory work and to instil an obedient attitude to their superiors.
6
Q
[🟠] (1944) what is the idea of meritocracy ?
A
- Individuals should achieve their status through their own efforts and abilities rather than it being ascribed at birth
7
Q
[🟠] what is the tripartite system?
A
- 1944 education act brought the tripartite system
- children were selected into 1 of 3 diff types of secondary schools depending on whether they passed the 11+ exam
- Grammar schools: passed the 11+, academic curriculum, access to non-manual jobs and higher education, mainly m/c
- Secondary modern schools: failed the 11+, non-academic practical curriculum, access to manual work, mainly w/c
- Technical schools: existed in few areas only therefore more a bipartite system
8
Q
[🟠] what type of inequality did the tripartite system promote?
A
- Class inequality: channelled the 2 different social classes into 2 different schools that offered unequal opportunities
- Gender inequality: girls had to score higher marks than boys in the 11+ to get into a grammar school
- justifies inequality through the ideology that ability is inborn and only measured early on in life when reality children’s environment has a great affect in their chances of educational achievement
9
Q
[🟠] what was the aim of comprehensive schools?
A
- comprehensive schools was brought to reduce the class inequalities that tripartite system had set up and make education more meritocratic
- The 11+ was to be abolished along with grammar abd secondary modern schools to be replaced with comprehensive schools
- HOWEVER: it was left to the local education authority to go comprehensive or not therefore grammar-secondary modern divide still exists in many areas
10
Q
[🟠] what are functionalist (🟢) view on comprehensive schools ?
A
- promotes social integration by mixing pupils of different social classes together into one class
- more meritocratic because it gives pupils a longer period to develop and show their abilities and skills
- HOWEVER: ( Julienne FORD) - little social mixing between the w/c and m/c due to streaming
11
Q
[🟠] what are Marxists (🟠) view on comprehensive schools ?
A
- not meritocratic, reproduces class inequality from one generation to the next through the continuation of streaming and labelling, this continues to deny w/c children of equal opportunities
- the myth of meritocracy - justifies class inequality by making unequal achievement seem fair and just, because failure looks like the fault of the individual instead of the whole system
12
Q
[🟠] what are the critics of selection by ability?
A
- Late developers benefit: those whose intelligence and ability improve later on in life are catered better in non-selective schools
- Fewer social divisions and more social cohesion through social mixing
-3. Reduced risk of labelling and the self fulfilling prophecy
-4. Benefits pupils of all abilities: (mixed - ability teaching ) where the intelligent pupils influence the less able. SMYTH: mixed ability teaching has beneficial effects on ‘high-flyers’ too.
- Fewer social divisions and more social cohesion through social mixing
13
Q
[🟣] what is marketisation and it’s purpose in education ?
A
- introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between suppliers into areas run by state
- Reducing direct state direct state control over education
- Increasing both competition between schools and parental choice of school
14
Q
[🟣] why are neo-liberals in favour of marketisation?
A
- The state should NOT provide services such as education, health and welfare
- The governments should encourage competition, privatise state-run businesses and deregulate markets.
- The value of education lies on whether a country can compete on the global marketplace
- Therefore this can only be achieved when schools operate like businesses
- schools have to attract customers ( parents) by competing with each other, schools that provide customers with what they want ( eg: success in exams) will thrive and others who don’t will go out of business
15
Q
[🟣] name policies that promote marketisation?
A
- Target setting ( ensuring that 35% pupils get 5 GCSE’s at grade 5 or above)
- National Testing ( SATs, GCSEs, A Levels) with publication of the results.
- National performance tables ( league tables )
- OFSTED inspections
- More independence for schools w/ local management of schools ran mainly by headteachers
- Independence for state-funded academies and free schools.
- Formula funding and pupil premium for students eligible for FSM
- School diversity
- Parental choice
- Open enrolment
16
Q
[🟣] what is parentocracy?
A
- Miriam DAVID: when power is moved away from schools and teachers and moved towards parents
- this creates greater diversity and choice for parents and that standards are raised through competition
17
Q
[🟣] how has Marketisation reproduce inequality ?
A
- BALL and WHITTY: exam league tables and the funding formula creates inequalities between schools. Schools that achieve good results are more in demand
- BARTLETT:
- Cream-skimming: ‘good’ schools can be more selective, by choosing their own customers and recruit high achieving, mainly m/c pupils, these pupils gain an advantage.
- Silt-shifting: ‘good’ schools can avoid taking less able pupils who are likely to get poor results and damage the school’s league table position
- For schools with poor results: they can’t afford to be selective and have to take less able, mainly w/c pupils, so their results are poorer and they remain unattractive to m/c parents
