Educational Policy.

Question 1

what is a policy?

Answer 1

plans and strategies for education introduced by the environment.

Question 2

what do most policies concerned with?

Answer 2

• equal opportunities.
• selection and choice.
• control of education.
• marketisation and privatisation.

Question 3

what was the educational policy like in Britain before 1988?

Answer 3

• before the industrial revolution, no state schools.
• state spent no money on education.
• work place needed education people so education was made compulsory for 5-13 year olds in 1880.
• not a change in children’s ascribed status- m/c received an academic curriculum, + w/c received basic for factory work.

Question 4

what system was used for selection in 1944?

Answer 4

the tripartite system. the education was influenced by meritocracy. the 1944 Education Act saw this system.

Question 5

what are the 3 types of school that was explained in the tripartite system?

Answer 5

• grammer schools- academic cirriculum, higher education, passed the 11+. mainly m/c.
• secondary schools- non-academic, practical curriculum, manual work, failed 11+. mainly w/c.
• technical schools- a few and far between so more bipartite then tripartite system.

Question 6

does the selection, the tripartite system promote meritocracy?

Answer 6

yes.
it reproduced class inequality, legitimated inequality through the ideology that ability is inborn and could be measured by the age of 11.

Question 7

what was introduced from the 1965 onwards?

Answer 7

the comprehensive school system.

local education authorities could decide whether to become a comprehensive school or not.

Question 8

what do functionalists think about the comprehensive school system?

Answer 8

it promotes social integration and are more meritocratic.

Question 9

what do marxists think about the comprehensive school system?

Answer 9

it is not meritocratic. streaming and labelling reproduces inequality. failure looks like it is the fault of the individual not the system.

Question 10

what is marketisation?

Answer 10

an attempt to improve education by making schools and college compete in a ‘education market’.

Question 11

what does marketisation reduce?

Answer 11

it reduces direct state control over education and increase competition between schools.

Question 12

what does schools then provide due to marketisation?

Answer 12

schools that provide customers with what they want (good exam results) thrive and those that do not ‘go out of business’.

Question 13

what is parentocracy?

Answer 13

‘rule by parents’. the power moves from schools to parents which encourages diversity- gives parents more choice and raises standards.

Question 14

who talks about the reproduction of inequality?

Answer 14

• Ball and Whitty.
• Bartlett.
• institute for Public Policy Research.

Question 15

what does Ball and Whitty say about the reproduction of inequality?

Answer 15

marketisation reproduces class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools.

Question 16

what does Bartlett say about the reproduction of inequality?

Answer 16

league tables- good schools more in demand, encourages ‘cream-skimming’ (selecting more higher achiever m/c students) and ‘silt-shifting’ (avoiding lower ability students who might damage the league position).