Educational policy and inequality Flashcards
What increased the need for an educated workforce?
Industrialisation
What did the 1944 Education Act bring?
- The tripartite system, selecting and allocating children into 3 types of secondary schools
- The 11+ exam would determine this
Did the tripartite system promote meritocracy?
No, the tripartite system and the 11+ exam reproduced class inequality as well as legitimised inequality through the ideology that ability is inborn
What did the comprehensive school system do?
- Aimed to overcome the class divide of the tripartite system and made education more meritocratic
- The 11+ exam was to be abolished
What is marketisation?
The process of introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between suppliers
What did the Education Reform Act 1988 do?
- Made marketisation a central theme as well as emphasising standards, diversity and choice
- Created academies and free schools
What are some policies that promote marketisation?
- Publication of league tables and Ofsted inspection reports
- Open enrollment
- Formula funding
- Tuition fees for higher education
- Schools being allowed to opt out of local authority (becoming academies)
What is ‘parentocracy’ introduced by David?
- In an education market power shifts away from the producers to the consumers
- They claim this encourage diversity among schools, gives parents more choice and raise standards
How do critics such as Ball and Whitty claim marketisation has increased inequalities?
- They believe marketisation policies such as exam league tables and the funding formula reproduce class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools
What does Bartlett mean by cream-skimming and silt-shifting mean?
Cream-skimming, ‘good’ schools can be more selective and choose their own customers and recruit high achieving mainly MC pupils
Silt-shifting, ‘good’ schools can avoid taking less able pupils who are likely to get poor results and damage schools league table position
What is the funding formula?
- Schools are allocated funds by a formula based on how many pupils they attract, as a result popular schools get more funds and so can afford better facilities
- Unpopular schools lose income and fail to attract pupils
What was Gerwitz study on parental choice?
- A study of 14 schools showed that differences in economic and cultural capital lead to class differences
- She identifies 3 types types of parents
1. Privileged-skilled choosers
2. Disconnected-local choosers
3. Semi-skilled choosers
Who are the privileged-skilled choosers?
- Mainly MC parents who uses their economic and cultural capital to gain educational capital for their children
- Being prosperous, confident and well educated allows them to take full advantage of the choices
Who are the disconnected-local choosers?
- WC parents whose choices were restricted by their lack of economic and cultural capital
- They found it difficult to understand school admissions and less confident dealing with schools
Who are the semi-skilled choosers?
- Mainly WC but they were ambitious for their children
- Also lacked cultural and economic capital
Why does Ball argue that parentocracy is a myth?
- The education system seems as if it is based on parents having a free choice of school
- It makes it appear that all parents have the same freedom to choose which school to send their child off to (ignores structural inequalities)
What policies did New Labour introduce in tackling inequalities caused by marketisation?
- Designating some deprived areas as Education Action Zones providing them with additional resources
- Education Maintenance Allowances: payments to students from low income backgrounds to encourage them to stay in education post 16
- Increase funding to state education
How does Benn criticise Labour’s policies in tackling inequalities and its commitment to marketisation?
- ‘New Labour paradox’
- Introduce EMAs to encourage student to stay in education but also introduce fees for higher education that may deter them from going to university
What did the Conservative gov aim to do from 2010?
- Move away from an education system based largely on comprehensive schools run by local authorities
- Its policies were influenced by New Right and Neoliberals ideas about reducing the role of the state in the provision of education
When did schools start to become academies?
- From 2010 all schools were encouraged to leave local control and become academies
- Funding was taken from local authority budgets and given directly to academies by central government
- Academies given control over their curriculum
- This removed focus on reducing inequalities
What’s a free school and what do they do?
- A type of academy that are run by charities, businesses, teachers or parents rather than the local authority
- Claim they improve educational standards by taking control away from the state and giving power to parents
How does Allen criticise free schools?
- Research from Sweden shows, where 20% of schools are free schools, children are only benefited from highly educated families
How has Ball argued that promoting academies and free-schools has led to both increased fragmentation and centralisation of control?
Fragmentation - schools operating independently of each other and potentially competing for resources and students
Centralisation - central government alone has the power to allow or require schools to become academies, reducing the role of elected local authorities
What policies did the Conservative-led coalition make to reduce inequality caused by marketisation and creation of academies?
- Free school meals for all children in reception, year 1 and 2
- Pupil premium, money that schools receive for each pupil from a disadvantaged background
- Ofsted found pupil premium was not spent on those it is supposed to help
