Educational policies Flashcards
Educational Policy in Britain before 1998 Key Sociologists
- Marxist (View of Comprehensives)
- Functionalists (View of Comprehensives)
Breifly explain Educational policy in Britain before 1988
Late 18th century - no state schools, education available to minority.
Industrialisation increases need for educated workforce & from late 19th century state began to become more involved with education.
Mc pupils given academic curriculum to prepare them for career in professions for office work.
Wc given schooling to equip them with basic numeracy & literacy skills meets for routine factory work- & instil them obedient attitude to superiors.
Which Act brought in the Tripartite System
1944 Education Act
From 1944 what did Education begin to become influenced by?
Idea of Meritocracy
Outline tripartite system
from 1944 education began to be influenced by idea of meritocrCY -individuals hsould achieve status in life through own efforts
1944 education act brought in triparttite system
children were selected & allocated to 1 of 3 schools according to abilties & aptitudes schemes
identified by 11 + exams
How did Allocation of Kids to School work in the Tripartite System?
Pupils did 11+ exam and were allocated to 1 of 3 types of secondary based on their abilities.
3 Types of School in Tripartite System
> Grammar Schools
Secondary Modern Schools
Technical Schools
Define Grammar Schools & what % attended?
Triparttite system
> offered Academic curriculum, access to professional jobs & Higher Education (Uni), for children with academic ability, passed the 11+ exam-mainly MC
20% attended
Define Secondary Modern Schools & what % attended?
Tripartite system
Offered non-academic curriculum & access to manual work for students who failed 11+ mainly WC
>80% attended
Define Technical Schools & what % attended?
Tripartite system
> Vocational education, existed in few areas
5% attended
How did Tripartite System reproduce Class Inequality
Rather than promoting Meritocracy
tripartite system & 11+ reproduced class inequality by channeling WC & MC into two different types of schools, offering unequal opportunities.
How did Tripartite System reproduce Gender Inequality
The system reproduced gender inequality by requiring girls to gain higher marks
marks than boys in 11+ to go grammar schools.
How did Tripartite System Legitimated Inequality
Legitimise-justify
> Tripartite legitimised inequality through the ideology that 11 +
Fair as everyone takes same exam, so have equal chance
- But in reality pupils’ environment affects chances of success.
When was the Comprehensive School System
Introduced in 1965
What did Comprehensive School System aim to do?
Aimed to make education meritocratic, fixing inequality in tripartite system.
What was abolished as a result of the intro of Comprehensive School System?
> 11+ abolished, all pupils attending local comprehensives
> Not all areas went comprehensive, so they’re still grammar schools in UK.
Functionalists View of Comprehensives
> Functionalisats see role of education-Fulfils essential functions, e.g. social solidarity & meritocratic role allocation-selecting pupils to their future work roles
> see comprehensives as meritocratic as they give pupils longer to develop & show abilities.
> argue comprehensives Promote social integration bringing all social classes, together in 1 school.
Ford Criticisms of Functionalist View on Comprehensives
Due to streaming, little mixing of social classes in school.
Marxists View of Comprehensives
> education Serves interests of capitalism, reproducing & legitimating class inequality.
> argue comprehensives Reproduce class inequality from 1 generation to next through continuation of streaming and labelling. denying WC equal opportunity
> Legitimates class inequality, through myth of meritocracy, making it seem everyone has equal opportunity & failure is due to individual & not system.
Define Marketisation
Neoliberals & new right favour marketisation
Process of introducing market forces of consumer choice & competition between suppliers into areas run by state
e.g. education, creating an education market.
How Marketisation has created an Education Market?
> Reduced direct state control over education
> Increased both competition between schools & parental choice of school
What is the significance of the 1988 Education Reform Act?
Marketisation became central theme of Gov Education Policy, introduced by conservative government
new labour governements emphasised standards of diversity & choice in education
The tory & democratic coalition GOv-took marketisation further by creating academies & free schools
Marketisation Key Sociologists
> New Right (View of Marketisation)
David (View on Parentocracy)
Ball and Whitty (Reproduction of Inequality)
(Cream Skimming and Silt Shifting)
Gewirtz (Parental Choice)
Ball (Myth of Parentocracy)
Explain the New Right view on Marketisation
> New Right favour marketisation
> Marketisation means schools compete with each other have to attract customers (parents)
> Schools providing parents with what they want-success in exams
will get extra funding, whereas those who don’t will go out of business.
Outline Policies Promoting Marketisation
- league tables,
- open enrolment,
- formula funding,
- Parentocracy
Criticisms of the Intro of the Comprehensive School System
Comprehensives are large schools so lack individual attention.
David view on Parentocracy
> In education market, power shifts away teachers & school to parents encouraging diversity among schools.
> Giving parents more choice, raising standards
Parentocracy
Policy to promote marketisation
Policies to promote marketisation include:
- publication of league tables & ofsted reports rank each school according to its exam performance & gives parents the info they need to choose right school
David - describes marketised education as parentocracy = rules by parents.
In Education market - power shifts away from producers (teachers & schools) to consumers (parents).
Encourages diversity among schools, gives parents more choice & raises standards.
A03 of marketisation policies- Ball & Whitty
marketisation policies such as exam league tables & funding formula reproduce class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools.
Silk shiftng & cream skimming
Barlett
The policy of Publishing schools exam results in league tables ensures schools that achieve good results are more in demand as parents are attracted to those with good league table rankings.
* cream skimming: good schools can be more selective, choose own customers & recruit high achieving mainly mc pupils = gain advantage.
- silt shifting: good schools can avoid taking less able pupils who get poor results & damage schools league table position.
The funding formula
Schools allocated funds by formula based on how many pupils they attract = popular schools get more funds & can afford better qualified teachers & better facilities. Popularity allows them to be more selective & attracts more able/ambitious mc kids.
Unpopular schools lose income & difficult to match teacher skills & facilities of more successful rivals = failure & funding is reduced.
Gerwitz: Parental choice
By increasing parental choice, marketisation advatages MC parents whose economic & cultural capital puts them in better positions to choose good schools for children
Gerwitz study -14 London secondary schools =Gerwitz found that differences in parents economic & cultural capital lead to class differences in how far they can exercise choice of secondary school.
Identified 3 types of parents:
* privileged skilled choosers
* disconnected local choosers
* semi skilled choosers
- privileged skilled choosers = mc parents used economic & cultural capital to gain educational capital for children. Were well educated, able to take full adv of choices. Parents had cultural capital - know how school admissions systems work.
- disconnected local choosers = wc parents, choices = restricted by lack of economic & cultural capital. Found it difficult to understand school admissions, less confident in dealings & had less adv. Distance & cost of travel = restrictions on choice of school.
- semi skilled choosers = wc parents but ambitious for kids. Lack cultural capital & difficult making sense of education market & rely on others opinions.
Gewirtz = mc parents possess cultural & economic capital & have more choice than wc.
What 3 Types of Parents does Gerwitz outline?
> Privileged Skills Choosers
Disconnected Local Choosers
Semi-Skilled Choosers
What are 2 Marketisation Policies reproducing Inequality?
- Formula funding
- League Tables
Define disconnected local choosers
WC parents -restricted by lack of economic and cultural capital
> Find it difficult to understand school admissions & less able to manipulate system.
Distance & cost of travel =major restrictions on choice of school.
Define Privileged Skilled Choosers
mc parents used economic & cultural capital to gain educational capital for children.
Were , confident & well educated,
able to take full advantage of choices.
Parents had cultural capital - know how school admissions systems work.
> Economic Capital enables Selection by Mortgage: Afford houses in catchment areas of popular schools.
Define Semi-Skilled Choosers
> Despite being WC, they were ambitious for kids.
> But found it hard to understand system, relied on other people’s opinions.
> Frustrated at inability to get children into schools they wanted.
What are Negative Consequences of Competition in Education?
> Schools try to maintain position in league tables by concentrating resources on those pupils who are most likely to achieve e.g. MC
> Link to Gilbourn and Youdell A-C Economy
So increases divisions between pupils.
Explain Ball’s Idea of the Myth of Parentocracy
> Ball believes Marketisation gives appearance of parentocracy
education makes it seem as if parents have free choice of school
Ball argues parentocracy is a myth,not reality
> Conceals class inequalities between parents
New labour & inequality 1997
New labour governements introduced policies aim to reduce inequality such as:
* Designating deprived areas as action zones & providing them with additional resources
* Aim higher programme-raised aspirations of groups who are underrepresented in higher education
* Education maintanance allowance(EMAs) payments to students from low income backgrounds to encourage to stay in school after 16 to gain better qualifications
Coalition government policies 2010
Move away from education based on comprehensive schools run by local academies = their policies -influenced by neoliberal & new right ideas - reducing role of state in provision of education through marketisation & privatisation.
Cameron stated that aim of coalition educational policy:
Encourage excellence, competition & innovation by freeing schools from state through polcies such as academies & free schools
Academies
2010 - all schools encourages to leave local authority control & become academies. Funding taken from local authority budges & given to academies by government & academies given control over curriculum.
2012 - over 1/2 secondary schools converted to academies.
The coalition government reducing inequality by allowing schools to become an academy
Free schools
Schools set up & run by parents, teachers, faith organisations or businesses rather than local authority.
Improve educational standards by taking control away from state & giving power to parents. It gives them opportunity to create new schools if unhappy with state schools in local area.
Fragmented centralisation
Ball argues promoting academies & free schools-led to both increased fragmentation & increased Centralisation of control over educational provision
* Fragmentation-comprehensive system is being replaced by diverse provisions
