Education: Educational policy

Question 1

What is educational policy?

Answer 1

How the government control education:
-increase standards.
-aim to provide equal opportunities.
-give parents more selection and choice.

Question 2

Difference between W/C & M/C education

Answer 2

Schooling made compulsory from ages of 5-13 in 1880.
-M/C given academic curriculum to prepare them for careers in the professions or office work.
-W/C given schooling for basic numeracy & literacy skills needed to routine factory work.

Question 3

Selection: Triparite system (1944)

Answer 3

Education influenced by meritocracy thatcher than ascribed status.
-1944 education act introduced system where children were allocated to 1 of 3 different types of secondary school, according to their aptitudes and abilities.
-These were identified by the 11+ exam.
-Grammar schools offered an academic curriculum leading to higher education (for passing 11+ & mainly M/C).
-Secondary modern schools offered practical curriculum & access to manual work (failing 11+ & mainly W/C).

Question 4

Evaluation of Tripartite system

Answer 4

-Reproduced class inequality by channeling the 2 classes into different schools offering unequal opportunities.
Also required girls to get higher marks than boys to obtain a place.
-Legitimised inequality through ideology that ability is inborn arguing that ability can be measured early on in life through 11+.

Question 5

The comprehensive school system (1965)

Answer 5

Introduced from 1965 onwards.
-Aimed to make education more meritocratic and get rid of the class divide.
-11+ was abolished along with grammars & secondary moderns replaced with these who all kids in the area would attend.
-Left to local education authority to ‘go comprehensive’ and not all did so so the divide remained in many areas.

Question 6

Functionalist theory of the role of comprehensives (EVAL)

Answer 6

-Fulfilling functions such as social intergration & meritocratic selection for
future work roles.
-Social intergration by combining the classes into one school but Ford (1969) found little social mixing between W/C & M/C because of streaming.
-Meritocratic because gives pupils longer period to develop and show abilities, rather than doing this at the age of 11.

Question 7

Marxist theories of the role of comprehensives (EVAL)

Answer 7

Marxists see education as serving capitalism by reproducing & legitimising class inequality.
-Reproduces class inequality from one generation to another by continuing streaming and labelling, denying W/C of equal opportunity.
-‘Myth of meritocracy’ justifying inequality by making unequal achievement seem fair and just like it’s the individual’s fault rather than the system.

Question 8

Marketisation

Answer 8

Refers to process of introducing market forces of consumer choice & competition begween supplies into areas run by the state such as education.
Created education market by;
-reducing direct state control over education.
-increasing both competition between schools & parental choice of school.

Question 9

Marketisation since the 1988 Education Reform act (ERA) - Thatcher

Answer 9

-Became the central theme since the Conservative govt.
-From 1997, New Labour govt followed similar policies emphasising standards, diversity & choice.
-From 2010, Conservative-Lib Dems took this further by creating academies and free schools.
-Neoliberals & the NR favour this since schools have to attract customers by competing with each other in the market.
-Schools providing customers with what they want (success) will thrive and those who don’t, will go out of business.

Question 10

Policies to improve marketisation (Conservatives)

Answer 10

-National curriculum
-National testing (intro of SATS & GCSEs)
-League tables (ranking achievement in SATS & GCSEs)
-Open enrolment (parents can send kids to school outside of catchment area)
-Formula funding (funding depending on no. of kids enrolling and school is given money per student)
-Ofsted

Question 11

Impact of Conservatives policies on marketisation - GOOD

Answer 11

-Parentocracy where there is more parent power and consumer choice (shift in control).
-Standardisation & raising standards as the national curriculum established a common standard against whcih a school could be judged.

Question 12

Impact of Conservatives policies on marketisation - BAD

Answer 12

-Myth of parentocracy and how these changes benefitted M/C patents who used their economic & cultural capital. Ball
-A-C economy - grafes become the main focus at the expense of other aspects of school life and care.
-Not all parents have choice & freedom e.g. W/C parents live in deprived areas with unfounded schools.
e.g. ethnic minorities have language barriers.

Question 13

Policies to improve marketisation (Con-Lib Dem coalition)

Answer 13

Allowed existing schools deemed successful by Ofsted to convert to an academy.
2 advantages:
1. Money - schools controls budget as money comes directly from govt and they can choose how to spend it so tailor school to needs of parents.
2. Freedom & Autonomy - school is free to make decisions about curriculum, admissions & how much they choose to pay staff.

Free schools are the new schools which adds more diversity and choice.
To be successful a free school needs to address a demand in market (faith based/focus on subject).

Question 14

Impact of coalition policies - GOOD

Answer 14

-Parentocracy - more consumer choice and parents can choose schools meeting their personal wishes or kids talents - Miriam David
-Improving standards- some academies were previously failing schools taken over by a larger academy group and these new sponsors have expertise and money to revitalise the school facilities.

Question 15

Impact of coalition policies - BAD

Answer 15

-Getting rich off education- since academy chains can pool funding and pay staff what they want, there are some heads who earn at least TWICE the standard headteacher which is hypocritical since academies were set up to help the poorest in society.
-Some say this is a misuse of taxpayers money.

Question 16

The reproduction of inequality (Ball & Whitty)

Answer 16

Say that exam league tables and funding formula reproduce class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools.

Question 17

Reproduction of inequality: League tables & Cream-skimming (Bartlett 1993)

Answer 17

Publishing schools exam resukts ensures schools that acheuve good ones are more in demand due to good ranking.
This encourages:
-Cream skimming where good schools can be more selective & recruit high achieving mainly M/C pupils.
-Silt shifting where good schools can avoid taking less able pupils who are likely to get poor results and damage schools position.

Question 18

Reproduction of inequality: The funding formula

Answer 18

-Popular schools get more funds and can afford better qualified teachers and facilities & their popularity allows them to be more selective and attract more ambitious/able M/C pupils.
-Unpopular schools lose income and find it difficult to match teacher skills of rivals so they fail to attract pupils and their funding is reduced.
-Study by Institute for Public Policy research found that competition oriented education systems produce more segregation between children of different social backgrounds.

Question 19

Gerwitz: parental choice

Answer 19

Benefits M/C parents whose economic and cultural capital puts them in a better place to choose good schools for their children.
Shown by Gerwitz’ study of 14 London schools & found that parents economic and cultural capital led to class differences in how far they can exercise choice of secondary school.

Question 20

Gerwitz study: Privileged skilled choosers

Answer 20

Mainly professional M/C who used capital to gain educational capital for their children.
Confident and understood how school admission systems work such as putting a school as first choice, and researching options.
Also had economic capital and could afford to move children around system such as paying extra travel costs for their children to attend a better school.

Question 21

Gerwitz’ study: Disconnected local choosers

Answer 21

W/C parents whose choices are restricted by lack of capital.
Found it harder to understand school admissions procedures and were less confident in dealing with schools and less aware of choice available and less able to manipulate system to their advantage.
Many attached importance to safety and quality of school facilities rather than long term ambitions.
Distance and cost was a major restriction due to limited funds and they often chose the nearest school.

Question 22

Gerwitz’ study: Semi-skilled choosers

Answer 22

Mainly W/C but we’re ambitious for their kids but also lacked cultural capital and found it difficult to make sense of the education market often relying on opinions about schools.
Often frustrated with inability to get children into schools they wanted.

Question 23

New Labour & Inequality

Answer 23

-Designating some deprived areas as Education Action Zones & providing them with additional resources.
-The Aim Higher programme to raise aspirations of underrepresented groups.
-Education Maintenance allowances: payments to students from low income backgrounds to encourage them to stay in after 16 eduction.
-Introduction of National Literacy Strategy, literacy & numeracy hours & reducing primary school class sizes.
-City academies created to give a fresh start to struggling schools with majority W/C pupils.
-Increased funding for state education.

Question 24

Critics of New Labour policies

Answer 24

-Benn 2012 sees Labours pokies as a contradiction to tackle inequality and committment to marketisation - New Labour paradox.
-Despite introducing EMAs to encourage saying in education, Labour also introduced tuition fees that may deter students from University.
-New Labour neither abolished fee paying schools nor removed their charitable status.

Question 25

Marketisation EVAL - Sink schools

Answer 25

League tables cause irrevocable damage/
-results dip
-lower position
-fewer applicants
-Ofsted highlights probkem
-less funding
-less money to improve
-declining results
-failing schools

Question 26

Conservative government policies from 2010

Answer 26

Accelerated man move away from comprehensive schools ran by authorities.
Cameron stated the aim of the Coalition’s policy was to encourage ‘excellence, competition & innovation’ by freeing schools from the ‘dead hand of the state’.
Cuts made to education govt.

Question 27

Academies

Answer 27

-From 2010, all schools encouraged to leave authority control and become academies and funding taken from local authority budgesys and given directly to academies by central govt.
-By 2017, 68% of secondary schools became academies. Some ran by private educational business & funded by state.
-Coaltion govt allowed any school to be an academy rather than poorer ones reducing focus on removing inequality.

Question 28

Free schools

Answer 28

Run by parents, teachers, organisations and businesses.
-Supporters of this claim they improve educational standards by giving power t patents if they are unhappy with state schools in their area.
-Allen 2010 argued in Sweden where 20% are free schools, they only benefit kids from children from highly educated families.
-Others claim free schools lower standards n Swedens education standards ranking has fallen since.

Question 29

Fragmented centralisation (Ball 2011)

Answer 29

-Fragmentation the comprehensive system is being replaced by a patchwork of diverse provision, much of it involving private providers, leading to greater inequality in opportunities.
-Centralisation of control central govt has power to allow or require schools to become academies or allow free schools to be set ip & these are funded directly by the govt & their graphic growth has greatly reduced the role of elected local authorities in education.

Question 30

Policies to reduce inequality

Answer 30

Introduced policies aiming to reduce inequality:
-Free school meals for all children in reception, Y1 & Y2.
-The pupil premium which is miney that schools receive for each pupil from a disadvantaged background.

But, Ofsted found this isn’t always spent in those it’s supposed to help and only 1/10 teachers said it changed how they supported pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds.
As part of the ‘austerity’ programme, spending on school buildings cut, EMA abolished, Sure Start closed & tuition fees tripled to £9000.

Question 31

The privatisation of education

Answer 31

-Involves the transfer of public assets such as schools to private companies.
-Education becomes a source of profit for capitalists in what Ball calls the ‘education services industry or ESI.
-Involved in increasing activities in education such as providing supply teachers, careers advice etc.
-Large scale school building projects often involve public-private partnerships where private sector companies provide capital to design, build, finance & operate educational services.
-Balk says that companies involved in such work expect to make up to 10 times as much profit as they do in other contracts. However, local authorities are often obliged to enter into these agreements as the only way of building new schools because of a lack of funding by central government.

Question 32

Blurring the private/public boundary

Answer 32

Many senior officials in the public sector leave to set up or work for private sector education businesses.
These companies then bid for contracts to provide services to schools & local authorities.
E.g. 2 companies set up in this way hold 4 of the 5 national contracts for school inspection services.
-Pollack notes the flow of personnel allows companies to buy insider knowledge to help win contracts as well as side stepping local authority democracy.

Question 33

Privatisation & the globalisation of education policy

Answer 33

-Many private companies in the education devices industry are foreign owned (Edexcel by US). Ball says some GCSEs are marked in Sydney & Iowa.
-Buckingham & Scanlon say the 4 leading educational software companies owned by global multinationals.
-Many contracts for educational devices in the UK are sold in by the original company to others such as banks & investment funds & in a globalised world, these are often bought by overseas companies.
-Conversely, some UK edu-businesses work overseas. E.g. Prospects worked in China & Finland.
-Often private companies are exporting UK education policy to other countries & then providing the services to deliver the policies & as a result, nation states are becoming less important in policy making, which is shifting to a global level which is also often privatised.

Question 34

The cola-isation of schools

Answer 34

-The private sector is penetrating education indirectly (vending machines & development of brand loyalty through displays of logos & sponsorship).
-Molnar says schools are targeted by private companies because schools by their nature carry enormous goodwill and can thus confer legitimacy in anything associated with them & are a kind of product endorsement.
-However, the benefits to schools & pupils of this private sector involvement are often very limited.
E.g. Ball says a Cadbury’s sports equipment promotion was scrapped after it was revealed that pupils would have to eat 5440 choco bars to qualify for a set of volleyball posts.

Question 35

Education as a commodity

Answer 35

Ball concluded that privatisation is becoming the key factor to shaping educational policy & is focussing on moving educational services out of the public sector controlled by the nation-state to be provided by private companies instead.
-Education is being turned into a ‘legitimate object of private profit making’ to be bought and sold in an education market.
-Marxists, such as Hall (2011) see Conservative policed as part of the ‘long march of the neoliberal revolution’. Hall sees academies as an example of handing over public services to private capitalists such as educational businesses.
-Marxists believe that the neoliberalist claim that completion and privatisation drives up standards is a myth to legitimate the turning of eduction into a source of private profit.

Question 36

Policies on gender & ethnicity: Gender

Answer 36

In the 19th century, females were largely excluded from higher education.
Since the 70s, police’s such as GIST introduced to reduce gender differences in subject choice.

Question 37

Policies on gender & ethnicity: Ethnicity - Assimilation policies

Answer 37

-These policies in the 60-70s, focussed in the need for pupils from minority ethnic groups to assimilate into mainstream British culture as a way of raising their achievement especially by helping those for whom English was not their first language.
-Critics argue some minority groups who are at risk of underachieving such as African Caribbean’s already speak English and it is because of poverty and racism.

Question 38

Policies on gender & ethnicity: Ethnicity - Multicultural policies (MCE)

Answer 38

Through the 80-90s, aimed to promote the achievements of children from minority ethnic groups by valuing all cultures in the school curriculum raising pupils self esteem.

Criticised:
-Stone argues black pupils don’t fail for lack of self esteem so it’s misguided.
-Critical race theorists argue that MCE is mere tokenism & picks out stereotypical features of minority cultures for inclusion in the curriculum but fails to tackle institutional racism.
-NR critics MCE for perpetuating cultural divisions & say education should share a national culture.

Question 39

Policies on gender & ethnicity: Ethnicity - Social inclusion

Answer 39

Of pupils from minority ethnic groups and policies to raise their achievement became the focus of the 90s:
-Detailed monitoring of exam results by ethnicity.
-Amending the Race Relations Act to place a legal duty on community.
-English as an Additional Language programmes.

However, Mirza sees little genuine change and argues that instead of tacking structural causes, educational policy takes a soft approach.
Gillborn argues that institutionally racist policies such as ethnocentric curriculum disadvantage minorities.

Question 40

Ball & Youdell - Types of privatisation

Answer 40

Endogeneous: privatisation WITHIN education: schools acting more like business including strategies by gathering ideas from a private sector in running a schools. Making schools more competitive.
-E.G. academies, parental choice, league tables.
Exogeneous: privatisation OUTSIDE of school where businesses start running & managing schools or delivering aspects of education that were formally delivered by state such as catering.
E.G. vending machines, books, teams/google, laptops.