Educational Policy and Inequality - Marketisation Essay Plan Flashcards
Possible exam question
Examine the view that the 1988 Education Reform Act did not increase equality in education
Themes of the question
Marketisation increasing inequality
Education Reform Act increasing equality
How can parentocracy be seen as a way in which marketisation doesn’t increase inequality?
It was introduced to give all customers (parents and children) a choice of schools
What does Ball et al describe parentocracy as?
A myth
Who developed the idea of parentocracy? What does it mean?
Brown. A word meaning parental power
What are parents encouraged to see themselves as under marketisation according to Ball?
As consumers of education
Who are more likely to make choices about what schools their kids go to based on the schools’ performance according to Tough and Brooks?
Better educated M/C parenrs
What are m/c parents more likely to do which means that marketisation increases inequality?
Shop around
Compare schools on League Tables
Afford to move house
Afford daily transport costs (if children go to far away school)
Does ‘the myth of parentocracy’ agree or disagree with the statement of marketisation increasing inequality?
Agrees
How does the growing range of different types of state-funded schools not increase inequality?
It gives parents more choice and theoretically it gives the same options of what school to go to to everyone. As they are state-funded, they appeal to every social class
What categories are children split into according to the education triage?
Safe cases
Hopeless cases
Borderline cases
How is the educational triage a way of explaining that marketisation increases inequality?
Teachers devote more time to pupils who have better chance of achieving high grades - these are normally m/c pupils
Who claims that children who have better chances of achieving good grades are mostly m/c?
The House of Commons Committee of MPs
How is open enrolment an argument for marketisation policies NOT increasing inequality?
Open enrolment means that schools have to accept students if they have places available
Pupil premium
Extra money allocated per head for pupils eligible for free school meals from poorer homes
How can formula funding and the pupil premium be seen as ways in which marketisation didn’t increase inequality?
Because they aimed to encourage the best schools to attract poorer pupils and to provide extra money to help improve education of the most disadvantaged
Why did schools have difficulties in improvement under marketisation?
Because they could never get better as they let in the same student-type each year
How does a difficulty to improve negatively effect the w/c?
Because the schools that let them in are never improving
Problems with the National Curriculum and testing
The National Curriculum dictated what teachers have to teach and when they have to teach. This was because they were demanded to carry out tests and examinations at certain times so they couldn’t spend long periods of time explaining individual topics
How did the National Curriculum and testing negatively effect the w/c?
Because m/c parents are more likely to revise with their children and spend more time preparing them for tests
Who introduced the Education Reform Act of 1988?
The Conservative governments of Margret Thatcher
Why did Margret Thatcher introduce the Education Reform Act in 1988?
Because she saw education as failing to produce a sufficiently skilled workforce
Marketisation
The process of introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between suppliers into areas run by the state (e.g. education)
What was reduced under the ‘education market’?
Direct state control over education
What was increased under the ‘education market’? (Two things)
Competition between schools
Parental choice
Which two groups favour marketisation?
Neoliberals
New Right
Why do neoliberals and the New Right favour marketisation?
Because they argue it means that schools have to attract customers by competing, which ultimately improves standards
What was the education system before the Education Reform Act criticised for not doing? (Three things)
Not reaching high standards
Not giving parents any choices
Not preparing students for the workforce
Key points to disagree with statement that marketisation increases inequality
Marketisation introduced to give all customers a choice
Growing range of different state-funded schools
Open enrolment
Formula funding and the pupil premium
Key points to agree with statement that marketisation increases inequality
The myth of parentocracy
Educational triage
Difficulties in improvement
Problems with the National Curriculum and testing
Why will some m/c parents be unwilling to tell researchers how they ‘play the system’?
As some ways of playing the system verge on illegality (E.g. giving false address) parents are unlikely to trust the researcher enough to tell them the truth
Why is there no point for a researcher investigating how m/c parents ‘play the system’ to ask the m/c pupils?
Because they may not know if their parents failed or succeeded in getting them a place in a particular school
What ways of m/c parents ‘playing the system’ will researchers not be able to investigate?
The ways that are hidden from public view (E.g. having friends in teaching professions who can give advice about admissions)
Why do schools make it difficult for researchers to investigate how m/c parents ‘play the system’?
Because they want to appear as having a fair admission policy which lets every type of person in. Results in them being unwilling to face contradicting research
Who identified 3 types of parents based on their ability to choose schools? What are the three types?
Gewirtz et al:
- skilled choosers
- semi-skilled choosers
- disconnected choosers
Skilled choosers (Gewirtz)
M/C
Want their kids to go to best schools
High cultural, material and social capital
Likely to know people inside the education system and use this to their advantage
Semi-skilled choosers (Gewirtz)
Less m/c than skilled choosers
Want children to go to best schools
Less cultural, material and social capital than skilled choosers so children don’t go to best schools
Less likely to be able to move house into other catchment area
Disconnected choosers (Gewirtz)
See all schools as the same
W/C
Prioritise their children’s happiness by sending them to local school that their friends all go to
Children less likely to go to the best schools
Postmodernists on marketisation increasing diversity and choice
In 2024, parents have a choice of their preferred school and there is an increased range of schools
More diversity of subjects as most secondary schools are academies so can choose not to follow the National Curriculum
HOWEVER, majority of academies do choose to follow the National Curriculum so this may be exaggerated
Who found that m/c parents had more effective choice of schools because of their higher levels of cultural, material and social capital?
Gewirtz, Bowe and Ball (Gewirtz et al)
