Educational Policy and Inequality

Question 1

Educational policy in Britain before 1988:

What were schools like before the industrial revolution?

Answer 1

Education was available only the rich e.g. fee paying schools.

Question 2

Educational policy in Britain before 1988:

How did the industrial revolution change the state’s attitude towards children’s education?

Answer 2

Industrialisation increased the need for an educated workforce and therefore lead to the the state making school compulsory for those aged 5-13 in 1880

Question 3

Educational policy in Britain before 1988:

How did social class determine what education a child received?

Answer 3

Education was based on a person’s side.

M/C pupils were given an tasks (academic curriculum) that helped them get into high paid jobs.

W/C pupils were given a schooling to equip them with skills that allowed them to work in factories e.g. basic numeracy and literary skills.

Question 4

Selection: the tripartite system:

How did education start to be influenced by meritocracy? (use dates)

Answer 4

In 1944, education focused on meritocracy, where people earned their status based on ability, not social class.

The 1944 Education Act created three types of secondary schools based on 11+ exam results.

Question 5

Selection: the tripartite system:

What were the different schools that came from the tripartite system? (3)

Answer 5

Grammar schools taught academics for students who passed the 11+, leading to higher education and office jobs, mostly for middle class students.

Secondary modern schools mixed academics and practical skills for students who failed the 11+, leading to factory jobs, mostly for working class students.

Technical schools focused on manual work for those who failed the 11+, mainly for working class students, but there were few of them.

Question 6

Selection: the tripartite system:

How did the tripartite system reproduce inequality?

Answer 6

The tripartite system and 11+ created inequality by putting students in different schools based on their class, offering different opportunities.

It also treated girls unfairly, as they needed higher marks than boys to get into grammar schools.

Question 7

The comprehensive school system:

When and why were comprehensive schools introduced?

Answer 7

Comprehensive schools were introduced in 1965 (made to replace inequality)

The 11+ was abolished, and grammar and secondary modern schools were replaced by comprehensive schools that all students could attend.

However, it was up to local authorities to decide whether to adopt comprehensive schools, so not all areas made the change, leaving the grammar-secondary modern divide in many places.

Question 8

The comprehensive school system:

Problems with the comprehensive schools

Answer 8

However it was left to the local education authority to decide whether to go comprehensive or not and not all schools changed. As a result, the grammar-secondary modern divide still exists in many areas.

Question 9

Two theories on the role of comprehensive schools:

Functionalist ideas on the role of comprehensive schools

Answer 9

Functionalists argue that comprehensive schools promote social integration by bringing children from different social backgrounds together in one school. However a study done by Ford (1969) found little social mixing between the W/C and the M/C largely because of streaming.

Functionalists also see the comprehensive school system as more meritocratic because it gives pupils a longer time to develop their abilities unlike the tripartite system which sought to select the most able pupils at the age of 11.

Question 10

Two theories on the role of comprehensive schools:

Marxists ideas on the role of comprehensive schools

Answer 10

However a study done by Ford (1969) found little social mixing between the W/C and the M/C largely because of streaming.

However, Marxists argue that the comprehensive are not meritocratic, rather they reproduce class inequality from one generation to the next through the continuation of the practice of streaming and labelling. These continue to deny W/C children equal opportunity.

By not selecting children at the age of 11, comprehensive schools may appear to offer equal chances to all. This myth of meritocracy legitimises class inequality by the making unequal achievement seem fair and just because the failure looks like it is the fault of the individual rather than the system.

Question 11

Marketisation:

What is marketisation?

Answer 11

Marketisation refers to the process of introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between suppliers into areas run by the state such as education.

Marketisation has created an education market by reducing direct state control, of education

increasing both competition between schools and increasing parental choice.

Question 12

Marketisation:

How can marketisation be seen through government policies?

Answer 12

Marketisation became a key part of education policy after the 1988 Education Reform Act introduced by Margaret Thatcher’s government.

From 1997, the New Labour governments of Blair and Brown continued focusing on standards, choice, and diversity, and in 2010, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition expanded marketisation by creating academies and free schools.

The New Right supports marketisation, believing that schools must compete to attract parents and offer what they want, like good exam results, or risk being shut down.

Question 13

Marketisation:

How has marketisation created an education market

Answer 13

Marketisation has created an education market by reducing direct state control, of education

increasing both competition between schools and increasing parental choice.

Question 14

Parentocracy:

How can parentocracy be seen through education? (POC) 3

Answer 14

Publication of league tables and Ofsted reports: These provide parents with information about school performance to help them choose the best schools.

Open enrolment and formula funding: Successful schools can attract more pupils, and funding is based on the number of students, encouraging schools to compete.

Creation of academies and free schools: Schools can opt out of local authority control, allowing more autonomy and encouraging competition.

Question 15

Parentocracy:

David’s views on parentocracy?

Answer 15

David (1993)- describes marketised education as parentocracy (education rules by parents. Supporters of marketisation argue that in an education market power shifts away from teachers and schools to parents.

They claim that this encourages diversity among schools and gives parents more choice as well as raises standards.

Question 16

The reproduction of inequality:

How does marketisation lead to class inequality? (use sociologist)

Answer 16

Ball (1994) and Whitty (1998) marketisation such as exam league tables and funding formula reproduce class inequalities between the schools.

Question 17

The reproduction of inequality:

How to league table and cream skimming lead to class inequalities?

Answer 17

Publishing league table rankings makes good schools more popular, as parents prefer those with high rankings.

This leads to cream skimming, where top schools select high-achieving, mainly middle-class students, and avoid less able students, a practice called silt-shifting.

As a result, schools with low rankings take in more working-class students, reinforcing social class inequalities.

Question 18

The reproduction of inequality:

How does formula funding lead to class inequalities?

Answer 18

Schools receive funding based on the number of pupils they attract, allowing popular schools to hire better teachers and improve facilities.

Unpopular schools lose funding, struggle to improve, and fail to attract pupils, reinforcing inequalities.

Public Policy’s Research (2012)- found that competition orientated educated systems such as Britain’s produce more segregation between children of different social backgrounds

Question 19

The reproduction of inequality:

How does marketisation benefit the M/C?

Answer 19

By increasing parental choice, it also advantages the M/C parents whose economic and cultural capital puts them in a better position to choose good schools for their children.

Question 20

The reproduction of inequality:

How does parental choice in the education system lead to inequality? )(use sociologist)

Answer 20

Gewirtz (1995)- found that differences between parents economic and cultural capital lead to class differences in how far they could exercise choice of secondary schools.

Question 21

The reproduction of inequality:

What were the three types of parents choosing their children’s education? (use sociologist)

Answer 21

Gewirtz - Three main parent choosers e.g privileged skilled chooser, disconnected chooser and semi skilled choosers.

Question 22

The reproduction of inequality:

How does parental choice in the education system effect privileged-skilled choosers? (use sociologist)

Answer 22

Gewirtz argues that privileged skilled choosers, mostly professional middle-class parents, use their economic and cultural capital to secure better education for their children.

These parents understand how the school admission system works and have the time and knowledge to research options.

Their financial resources allow them to pay extra costs, like travel, to send their children to better schools outside their local area.

Question 23

The reproduction of inequality:

How does parental choice in the education system affect disconnected choosers? (use sociologist)

Answer 23

Gewirtz argues Disconnected local choosers are working-class parents with limited cultural and economic capital, which restricts their ability to make informed school choices.

They struggle to understand the admissions process, feel less confident, and focus more on practical factors like safety and school facilities rather than long-term goals.

Limited finances and travel costs often mean that the closest school is their only realistic option.

Question 24

The reproduction of inequality:

How does parental choice in the education system affect semi-skilled choosers? (use sociologist)

Answer 24

Gewirtz Semi-skilled choosers- These parents were also mainly W/C but unlike the disconnected local choosers they were ambitious for their choosers.

However, they too also lacked cultural capital and found it difficult to make sense of the education market and often had to rely on other people’s opinions about schools.

They were often frustrated at their inability to get their children into schools they wanted

Question 25

The myth of meritocracy:

How is marketisation of education not meritocratic? (use sociologist)

Answer 25

Ball believes that marketisation gives the appearance of a parentocracy. The education system sees as if its is based on the parents having a choice.

Leech and Campos (2003)- M/C parents can move into the catchment area of more desirable schools. By disguising the fact that schooling continues to reproduce class inequality in this way, the myth of parentocracy makes inequality in the education system seem fair and inevitable

Question 26

The myth of parentocracy:

How is parentocracy a myth? (use sociologist)

Answer 26

Ball argues that parentocracy is a myth. It makes it appear as if all parents have the same freedoms to choose which school to send their children to when they don’t e.g. catchment area.

Question 27

New Labour and Inequality:

How did New Labour try to tackle inequality through their policies? ( name policies 2)

Answer 27

Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA’s)- payments to students from low income households to encourage them to stay on post 16 to gain better qualifications.

The introduction of the National Literacy Strategy, literacy and numeracy hours and reducing class sizes. It claimed that these policies are of greater benefit to disadvantaged groups and help to reduce inequality

Question 28

New Labour and Inequality:

Criticism of New Labour’s policies on tackling inequality (use sociologist)

Answer 28

Benn (2012)- there s a contradiction between Labour’s policies on wanting to reduce inequality and its commitment to marketisation, ‘New Labour paradox’

For example, despite introducing Education Maintained Allowance, Labour also introduced tuition fees for higher education that may deter W/C from going.

New Labour governments neither abolished fee-paying private schools or removed their charitable status estimated to be worth over £165 million per year

Question 29

The Conservative government policies from 2010:

How did the conservative-lib dem coalition policies help create inequality within education?

Answer 29

Its policies have been strongly influenced by the New Right ideas about reducing the role of the sate in provision and privatisation.

Cameron (PM-2010-2015) stated that the aim of the coalition education’s policy was to encourage competition by freeing schools from the state through policies such as academies and free schools.

As well as this, cuts were made to the education budget as part of the government’s general policies of reducing state spending

Question 30

Academies:

How did the introducing of academies lead to inequality within education?

Answer 30

From 2010, funding was taken from local authority budgets and given directly to academies by central government, and academies were given control over their curriculum. 

By 2017, over 68% of all secondary schools had converted to academy status.  

The Coalition government, by allowing any school to become an academy, removed the focus on reducing inequality. 

Question 31

Free Schools:

How did free schools lead to inequality within education?

Answer 31

Free schools are set up and run by parents, teachers, faith organisations or businesses rather than the local authority. 

Supporters of free schools claim that they improve educational standards by taking control away from the state and giving power to parents. 

 Free schools, give parents and teachers the opportunity to create a new school if they are unhappy with the state schools in their local area.  However it leads to a selection by mortgage as not all parents can afford to move into the catchment area of a popular school. 

Question 32

Free Schools:

How can free schools and academies create fragmentation? (use sociologist) Free Schools and Academies

Answer 32

Ball (2011) argues that promoting academies and free schools has led to both increased fragmentation and increased centralisation of control over educational provision in England. 

Question 33

Free Schools:

What is fragmentation?

Answer 33

 The comprehensive system is being replaced by a patchwork of diverse provision, much of it involving private providers, that leads to greater inequality in opportunities. 

Question 34

Free schools:

What is centralisation?

Answer 34

Centralisation of control Central government alone has the power to allow or require schools to become academies or allow free schools to be set up. These schools are funded directly by central government. 

 Their rapid growth has greatly reduced the role of elected local authorities in education. 

Question 35

Criticisms on the Coalition government policies:  

What are some criticisms of the coalition government policies?

Answer 35

In England, evidence shows that free schools take fewer disadvantaged pupils than nearby schools.  

For example, in 2011 only 6.4% of pupils at Bristol Free School were eligible for free school meals, compared with 22.5% of pupils across the city as a whole (DoE 2012). 

Free schools create a selection by mortgage? Not all parents can afford to move into the catchment area of a popular school. 

Question 36

Policies to reduce inequality in education:  

What policies reduced inequality in education?

Answer 36

Free school meals for all children in reception, year one and year two. 

The Pupil Premium- money that schools receive for each pupil from a disadvantaged background. 

each pupil from a disadvantaged background. 

  

Question 37

Criticisms of how the Conservative government policies from 2010 haven’t reduced inequality:  

How have the conservative government policies from 2010 not reduced inequality?

Answer 37

Ofsted (2012) found those it many cases the Pupil Premium is not spent it is supposed to help.  Only one in ten head teachers said that it had significantly changed how they supported pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

 (EMA) was abolished and university tuition fees tripled to £9,000 a year - increased university fees may discourage them from entering higher education.  

Question 38

Blurring the public/private boundary:  

How is there a blurring between the public and private boundary in education? (use sociologist)

Answer 38

Headteachers leave and set up private education businesses. These companies then bid for contracts to provide services to schools and local authorities.

 Allyson Pollack (2004) notes, this flow of personnel allows companies to buy ‘insider knowledge’ to help win contracts, as well as side-stepping local authority democracy.  

Question 39

The privatisation of education:  

How is education becoming privatised?(use sociologist)

Answer 39

Private companies are involved in an ever-increasing range of activities in education e.g. supply teachers and Ofsted inspections.

 Ball (2007), companies involved in such work expect to make up to ten times as much profit as they do on 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 40

Education as a commodity:  

How is education becoming a commodity? (use sociologist)

Answer 40

Ball-. Policy is increasingly focused on moving educational services out of the public sector controlled by the nation-state, to be provided by private companies instead.  In the process, education is being turned into a ‘legitimate object of private profit-making’, a commodity to be bought and sold in an education market. 

Marxists e.g  Hall (2011) academies as an example of handing over public services to private capitalists, such as educational businesses.  In the Marxist view, the neoliberal claim that privatisation and competition drive up standards is a myth used to legitimate the turning of education into a source of private profit. 

Question 41

Privitisation and globalisation of education:

How is education becoming globalised? (use sociologist)

Answer 41

Many private companies in the education services industry are foreign-owned. The exam board Edexcel is owned by the US educational publishing and testing giant Pearson.  

Buckingham and Scanlon (2005), the UK’s four leading educational software companies are all owned by global a multinationals . Often, private companies are exporting UK education policy to other countries e.g Ofsted-type inspections and then providing the services to deliver the policies. 

 As a result, nation-states are becoming less important in policymaking, which is shifting to a global level and which is also often privatised. 

Question 42

Key word:

What does the colaisation of education mean?

Answer 42

The private sector is also indirectly marketizes education e.g  through vending machines on school premises.

Question 43

The cola-isation of schools:  

How is education becoming colaised? (use sociologist)

Answer 43

The benefits to schools and pupils of this private sector involvement are often very limited. Ball, a Cadbury’s sports equipment promotion was scrapped after it was revealed that pupils would have to eat 5,440 chocolate bars just to qualify for a set of volleyball posts. 

Sharon Beder (2009), UK families spent £110,000 in Tesco supermarkets in return for a single computer for schools. 

Question 44

Policies that impact gender:

What policies in education affect gender?

Answer 44

Under the tripartite system, girls often had to achieve a higher mark than boys in the 11+ in order to obtain a grammar school place. 

Since the 1970s, however, policies such as GIST have been introduced to try to reduce gender differences in subject choice.  

Equal Pay Act 1970 and Sex Discrimination Act 1975 - helps women realise that they are equal to men. Helps them to achieve more

Question 45

Policies that impact ethnicity:

What policies affect ethnicity?

Answer 45

Multicultural education (MCE) policies through the 1980s and into the 1990s aimed to promote the achievements of children from minority ethnic groups.

Gifted and Talented programmes- programme that was brought in to help those who are bright but come from ethnic minority backgrounds

Aiming high- aimed at trying to support and raise black Caribbean boys achievement.

Question 46

Criticisms of Multi-cultural education:  

What are some criticisms of multi-cultural education? (use sociologist)

Answer 46

Maureen Stone (1981) argues that black pupils do not fail for lack of self-esteem, so MCE is misguided. 

 Critical race theorists argue that MCE  picks out stereotypical features of minority cultures for inclusion in the curriculum, but fails to tackle institutional racism. 

Question 47

Criticism of the Social inclusion programme:  

What are some criticisms of the social inclusion programme? (use sociologist)

Answer 47

Mirza 2005- argues that, instead of tackling the structure causes of ethnic inequality such as poverty and racism, causational policy still takes a ‘soft approach that focuses on culture, behaviour and the home. 

Gillborn argues that institutionally racist policies in relation to the ethnocentric curriculum, assessment and streaming continue to disadvantage minority ethnic group pupils.