EDUCATION - Social Democratic and Neo-Liberal / New Right Views

Question 1

What types of people are Social Democratic perspectives associated with? HINT: The governments of the 60s and 70s

Answer 1

Educationalists and politicians who would like to see greater equality resulting from the education system.

In the 60s and 70s –> This can be seen by the Labour Governments who introduced comprehensive schools!

Question 2

Who do Social Democratic individuals believe that the education system should give extra help too?

Answer 2

Those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Question 3

What 2 things do supporters of Social Democratic perspectives believe that the education system should promote?

Answer 3

• Promote economic growth
• Promote equality of opportunity in a meritocratic society

Question 4

Why do Social Democratic supporters believe that governments should intervene in the education system?

Answer 4

They believe that governments need to intervene in the education system, as the system is not automatically meritocratic; they believe that governments should intervene to ensure that all types of people, from all social classes, have the same chance to fulfil their potential in education as everyone else does.

Question 5

Give an example of one thing that Social Democratic supporters believe should happen, in order to increase investment into the unfair education system.

Answer 5

They believe that the wealthy should be taxed more and more spending should be put on state education, in order to give those from working-class backgrounds a good chance to succeed –> Level out the playing field!

Question 6

Give 3 ways that Social Democratic supporters believe that equality of opportunity can be achieved.

Answer 6

• Expanding higher education (to make more places for working-class pupils)
• Introducing comprehensive schools (so middle-class students cannot gain an advantage by going to selective state schools)
• Providing extra educational help for those who come from disadvantaged backgrounds

Question 7

What do critics of Social Democratic policies believe? HINT: Success rate

Answer 7

Many critics argue that Social Democratic policies have not been very successful in helping the working-class to do better in education –> The gap in attainment between the classes still remains large to this day!

Question 8

What does Wolf (2002) question and what was their example? HINT: Does government spending always lead to economic growth?

Answer 8

They question as to whether more and more government spending on education will automatically lead to economic growth.

For example - Switzerland has a relatively low education spending rate, but high economic growth.

Question 9

Who are the strongest critics of Social Democratic viewpoints?

Answer 9

Neo-Liberals!

Question 10

What do Neo-Liberals believe?

Answer 10

They believe that greater equality in education can lead to standards being undermined; they believe this causes education to become levelled down.

This suggests that the most able students are not given the chance to reach their full potential.

Question 11

What is the Feminist critic of Social Democratic viewpoints?

Answer 11

Feminists say that social democratic views concentrate too much on class inequalities and not enough on gender inequalities.

Question 12

What perspective has had the most influence on British education in recent years? HINT: Think Thatcher’s ‘school of thought’

Answer 12

Neo-Liberal / New Right ideas

Question 13

What do Neo-Liberal / New Right ideas support?

Answer 13

They are in favour of private business and the free market. They believe that education is important, but state education can drain the economy; they are not willing to invest in something that they believe is important, due to fears of endangering the economy!

Question 14

What do Neo-Liberal / New Right supporters believe drives education?

Answer 14

Competition between companies (schools); this then drives innovation and, therefore, leads to a higher success rate.

Question 15

TRUE OR FALSE: Neo-Liberal / New Right supporters believe that the state economy IS NOT insufficient and a drain on a country’s resources.

Answer 15

FALSE: Neo-Liberal / New Right supporters believe that the state economy IS insufficient and a drain on a country’s resources.

Question 16

(CHUBB AND MOE) What type of education do they believe is ‘unresponsive to the needs of pupils and parents and tends to have low standards’?

Answer 16

State education –> They believe that private education has the ability to please its customers, as (if they do not) then they will not survive. Therefore, the standards at private schools are high and there is constant pressure to improve and meet parents’ and pupils’ expectations.

Question 17

What has led to standards rising across the world?

Answer 17

GLOBALISATION –> For example: If countries are going to compete in an active and wide global economy, workers who lack skills will lose their jobs to more skilled workers from other countries; this is why people’s standards and rising!

Question 18

Why do Neo-Liberals / New Right supporters believe that the education system should run / work as?

Answer 18

A business - This is quite a NEGATIVE view on education!

Question 19

Who opposes the Neo-Liberal / New Right perspective and what 2 points do they make?

Answer 19

Marxists and Social Democrats oppose this perspective. They believe that state education is the only way that opportunities can be provided to pupils from all classes.

They also believe that private education puts profit and money before the well-being of pupils; this system always favours the rich over the poor. This then leads to working-class talent being wasted, which can impact the economy.

Question 20

What did Ball investigate?

Answer 20

He investigated why working-class children under-performed in the education system.

Question 21

What processes did Ball identify that tended to have a negative impact on working-class students?

Answer 21

Banding (mixed-ability classes), setting and streaming!

Question 22

(BALL) What did he identify?

Answer 22

Working-class students often gravitated towards the lower bands or streams; they then became less and less interested in education, and thus adopted anti-school subcultures.

Therefore, these children (often from low-income backgrounds) would leave school with fewer qualifications; this would then reproduce class inequalities (apparently by accident / as a side consequence).

Question 23

(Ball) Sum up Ball’s study.

Answer 23

Creating differentiation in education (via sets or bands or having mixed sets) often disadvantages working-class pupils and reproduces inequality and the idea that ‘working-class kids get working-class jobs) almost as a by-product of the system.

The best behaved children (middle-class) are often in the top streams, whilst the worst behaved children (working-class) are often at the bottom.