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Sociology > Educational Policy And Inequality > Flashcards

Educational Policy And Inequality Flashcards

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Sociology 101 flashcards
1
Q

When did the state make schooling compulsory from the ages 5-13?

A

1880

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2
Q

What did education begin to be influenced by from 1944?

A

The idea of meritocracy

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3
Q

What is meritocracy?

A

An educational or social system where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed and where individuals’ rewards and status are achieved by their own efforts rather than ascribed by their gender, class or ethnic group.

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4
Q

What did the 1944 Education Act introduce?

A

The tripartite system

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5
Q

What is the tripartite system?

A

The system of secondary education created by the 1944 Education Act, based on three types of school. The 11+ exam was used to identify pupil’s aptitudes and abilities. Those as having academic ability (mainly m/c) went to grammar schools; most w/c children went to secondary modern schools. Although replaced in most areas after 1965, the tripartite system still continues in some.

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6
Q

What are the two types of schools in the tripartite system?

A

Grammar schools

Secondary modern schools

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7
Q

What did grammar schools offer?

A

An academic curriculum and access to non-manual jobs and higher education.

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8
Q

Who were grammar schools for?

A

Pupils with academic ability who passed the 11+ exam. These pupils were mainly m/c.

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9
Q

What did secondary modern schools offer?

A

A non-academic, ‘practical’ curriculum and access to manual work.

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10
Q

Who were secondary modern schools for?

A

Pupils who failed the 11+ exam. These pupils were mainly w/c.

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11
Q

What did the tripartite system and 11+ reproduce?

A

Class inequality by channeling the two social classes into two different types of school that offered unequal opportunities. The system also reproduced gender inequality by requiring girls to gain higher marks than boys in the 11+ to obtain a grammar school place.

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12
Q

When was the comprehensive system introduced?

A

From 1965 onwards.

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13
Q

What did the comprehensive system aim to overcome?

A

The class divide of the tripartite system and make education more meritocratic.

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14
Q

Why does the grammar-secondary modern divide still exists in many areas?

A

It was left to the local education authority to decide whether to ‘go comprehensive’ and not all did so.

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15
Q

What is the functionalist view on the role of education?

A

Functionalists see it as fulfilling essential functions such as social integration and meritocratic selection for future work roles. We can apply this theory to the role of comprehensive schooling.

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16
Q

What is the Marxist view on the role of education?

A

Marxists see education as serving the interests of capitalism by reproducing and legitimating class inequality. We can apply this theory to the role of comprehensive schooling.

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17
Q

What do functionalists argue that comprehensives promote?

A

Social integration by bringing children of different social classes together in one school. However, an early study by Ford (1969) found little social mixing between w/c + m/c, largely because of streaming.

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18
Q

What do functionalists see the comprehensive system as?

A

More meritocratic because it gives pupils a longer period in which to develop and show their abilities unlike the tripartite system.

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19
Q

Why do Marxists argue that comprehensives are not meritocratic?

A

They argue that instead they reproduce class inequality from one generation to the next through the continuation of the practice of streaming and labeling

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20
Q

What does the ‘myth of meritocracy’ justify?

A

Class inequality by making unequal achievement seem fair and just, because failure looks like it is the fault of the individual rather than the system.

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21
Q

What does marketisation refer to?

A

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

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22
Q

How has marketisation created an ‘education market’?

A
  • Reducing direct state control over education

- Increasing both competition between schools and parental choice of school.

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23
Q

When was the Education Reform Act (ERA) introduced?

A

1988

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24
Q

Who introduced the 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA)?

A

The conservative government of Margret Thatcher.

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25
Q

When did marketisation first become a central theme of government education policy?

A

Since the 1988 ERA.

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26
Q

How did the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government take marketisation even further?

A

By creating academies and free schools.

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27
Q

Who favours marketisation?

A

Neoliberals and the New Right

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28
Q

What do neoliberals and the New Right argue about marketisation?

A

They argue that marketisation means that schools have to attract customers (parents) by competing with each other in the market.

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29
Q

Give 5 examples of policies which promote marketisation.

A
  • Open enrolment, allowing successful schools to recruit more pupils.
  • Specialist schools, specialising in IT, languages etc, to widen parental choice.
  • Formula funding, where schools receive the same amount of funding for each pupil.
  • Schools having to compete to attract students
  • Publication of league tables and Ofsted inspection reports that rank each school according to its exam performance and give parents the information they need to choose the right school.
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30
Q

What does David (1993) describe marketised education as?

A

Parentocracy (literally ‘rule by parents’)

31
Q

What do supporters of marketisation argue about education markets?

A

They argue that in an education market, power shifts away from the producers (teachers and schools) to the consumers (parents). They claim that this encourages diversity among schools, gives parents more choice and raises standards.

32
Q

Despite the claimed benefits of marketisation, its critics argue that it has increased inequalities. Give an example of this.

A

Ball (1994) and Whitty (1998) note how marketisation policies such as exam league tables and the funding formula reproduce class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools

33
Q

What does the policy of publishing each schools exam results in a league table ensure?

A

That schools that achieve good results are more in demand, because parents are attracted to those with good league table rankings. As Bartlett (1993) notes, this encourages cream-skimming and silt-shifting.

34
Q

What is cream-skimming?

A

‘Good’ schools can be more selective, choose their own customers and recruit high achieving, mainly m/c pupils. As a result these pupils gain an advantage.

35
Q

What is silt-shifting?

A

‘Good’ schools can avoid taking less able pupils who are likely to get poor results and damage the school’s league table position.

36
Q

What happens to schools with poor league table positions? (selecting students)

A

They cannot afford to be selective and have to take less able, mainly w/c pupils, so their results are poorer and they remain unattractive to m/c parents.

37
Q

What is the overall effect of league tables?

A

To produce unequal schools that reproduce social class inequalities.

38
Q

What is the funding formula?

A

Schools are allocated funds by a formula based on how many pupils they attract.

39
Q

How do popular schools benefit from the funding formula?

A

They get more funds and so can afford better-qualified teachers and better facilities. Thus, popular schools with good results and m/c pupils thrive.

40
Q

How are unpopular schools affected by the funding formula?

A

They lose income and find it difficult to match the teacher skills and facilities of their more successful rivals. Thus, unpopular schools fail to attract pupils and their funding is further reduced.

41
Q

How do marketisation policies benefit the m/c?

A
  • By creating inequalities between schools
  • By increasing parental choice
  • M/c parents economic and cultural capital puts them in a better position to choose ‘good’ schools for their children.
42
Q

What was Gewirtz’s (1995) study of 14 London secondary schools?

A

Gewirtz found that differences in parents’ economic and cultural capital lead to class differences in how far they can exercise choice of secondary school.

43
Q

What were the three main types of parents Gewirtz discovered?

A
  • Privileged-skilled choosers
  • Disconnected-local choosers
  • Semi-skilled choosers
44
Q

Who were privileged-skilled choosers?

A

Mainly professional m/c parents who used their economic and cultural capital to gain educational capital for their children. Being prosperous, confident and well educated, they were able to take full advantage of the choices open to them.

45
Q

How did cultural capital benefit privileged-skilled workers?

A

They knew how schools admission systems work, for example the importance of putting a particular school as first choice. They had time to visit schools and the skills to research the options available.

46
Q

How did economic capital benefit privileged-skilled workers?

A

They could afford to move their children around the education system to get the best deal out of it, for example paying extra travel costs so that their children could attend ‘better’ schools out of their area.

47
Q

Who were disconnected-local choosers?

A

W/c parents whose choices were restricted by their lack of economic and cultural capital.

48
Q

Give an example of a major restriction for a choice of school for disconnected-local choosers

A

Their funds were limited and a place at the nearest school was often their only realistic option for their children.

49
Q

Give 5 examples of ways in which disconnected-local choosers were restricted in their choice of schools?

A
  • They found it difficult to understand school admissions procedures.
  • They were less confident in their dealings with schools.
  • Less aware of the choices open to them.
  • Less able to manipulate the system to their own advantage.
  • Many attached more importance to safety + quality of school facilities than to league tables or long term ambitions
50
Q

Who were semi-skilled workers?

A

Mainly w/c parents, but unlike the disconnected-local choosers, they were ambitious for their children. However, they too lacked cultural capital and found it difficult to make sense of the education market, often having to rely on other peoples opinions about schools. They were often frustrated at their inability to get their children into the schools they wanted.

51
Q

What was Gewirtz’s overall conclusion about the education market?

A

Although in theory the education market gives everyone greater choice, Gewirtz concludes that in practise m/c parents possess cultural and economical capital and have more choice than w/c parents.

52
Q

What does Ball believe marketisation gives the appearance of?

A

Parentocracy. Ball argues that it is a myth, not a reality. It makes it appear that all parents have the same freedom to choose which school to send their children to.

53
Q

While marketisation policies have tended to increase inequality, the New Labour governments of 1997 + 2010 also introduced a number of policies aimed at reducing it. Give 6 examples.

A
  • Designating some deprived areas as Education Action Zones (EZA) and providing them with additional resources.
  • The Aim Higher programme to raise the aspirations of groups who are under-represented in higher education
  • Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs): payments to students from low-income backgrounds to encourage them to stay on after 16 to gain better qualifications.
  • Introduction of the National Literacy Strategy, literacy and numeracy hours, and reducing primary school class sizes. It is claimed these policies are of greater benefit to disadvantaged groups and so help to reduce inequality.
  • City academies were created to give a fresh start to struggling inner-city schools with mainly w/c pupils.
  • Increased funding for state education.
54
Q

What is the ‘New Labour Paradox’?

A

Benn (2012) sees a contradiction between Labour’s policies to tackle inequality and its commitment to marketisation. She calls this the ‘New Labour Paradox’.

55
Q

Give an example of the ‘New Labour Paradox’.

A

Despite introducing EMAs to encourage poorer students to stay in education, Labour also introduced tuition fees for higher education that may deter them from going to uni. Furthermore, New Labour governments neither abolished fee-paying private schools nor removed their charitable status (est. to be worth over £165 mil p/y).

56
Q

When was the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government elected and what did it accelerate?

A
  1. It accelerated the move away from an education system based largely on comprehensive schools run by local authorities.
57
Q

What has the policies of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government been strongly influenced by?

A

Neoliberal and New Right ideas about reducing the role of the state in the provision of education through marketisation and privatisation.

58
Q

What did David Cameron state that the aim of the Coalition’s education policy was?

A

To encourage ‘excellence, competition and innovation’, by freeing schools from the ‘dead hand of the state’, through policies such as academies and free schools. Furthermore, cuts were made to the education budget, as part of the government’s general policy of reducing state spending.

59
Q

What were all schools encouraged to do from 2010?

A

Leave local authority control and become academies. Funding was taken from local authority budgets and given directly to academies by central government, and academies were given control over their curriculum.

60
Q

What happened in 2012 to over half of all secondary schools?

A

They had converted to academy status.

61
Q

Who runs academies?

A

Some academies are run by private educational businesses and funded directly by the state.

62
Q

Who did Labour’s original city academies target?

A

Disadvantaged schools and areas.

63
Q

How did the coalition government remove the focus on inequality?

A

By allowing any school to become an academy.

64
Q

Who are free schools set up and run by?

A

Although funded directly by the state, free schools are set up and run by parents, teachers, faith organisations or businesses rather than the local authority.

65
Q

How do supporters of free schools claim that they improve educational standards?

A

By taking control away from the state and giving power to parents.

66
Q

What do free schools give parents and teachers the opportunity to do?

A

Create a new school if they are unhappy with the state schools in their local area.

67
Q

What does Rebecca Allen (2010) argue about free schools?

A

Research from Sweden, where 20% of schools are free schools, shows that they only benefit children from highly educated families.

68
Q

What do critics claim about free schools?

A

Free schools are socially diverse and lower standards - Sweden’s international educational ranking has fallen since their introduction.

69
Q

What have Charter schools in the USA been criticised for?

A

Appearing to raise standards but only doing so by strict pupil selection and exclusion policies.

70
Q

In England, what evidence is provided revolving around free schools?

A

Free schools take fewer disadvantaged children 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).

71
Q

What does Ball (2011) argue promoting academies and free schools has lead to?

A

Both increased fragmentation and increased centralisation of control over educational provision in England.

72
Q

What is fragmentation?

A

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.

73
Q

What is ‘centralisation of control’?

A

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.

Sociology (14 decks)

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