how has globalisation impacted education? & conservative policy 2015+

Question 1

what direct policies have been influenced through globalisation?

Answer 1

• variety of schools eg free schools and academies
• skills for global marketplace competition
• additonal funding for maths + science
• raising standards for teachers

Question 2

what influences of globalisation other than policies have been identified?

Answer 2

• privatisation and marketisation
• university entrances for overseas students, make more money
• EAL and ESOL funding
• looking into other cultures to find solutions to problems
• international comparisons between edu systems for example pisa ranking

Question 3

what impact has globalisation had on education?

Answer 3

• changes to teaching and learning strategies
• curriculum changes
• multiculturalism, many residents are immigrants so pupil population is now more diverse
• the EU has shaped policies and laws

Question 4

what problems are identified with globalisation?

Answer 4

• limited range of subjects
• cultural differences between nations
• validity and reliability of testing
• expensive
• shortlived policies

Question 5

PISA tables (international league tables) impact and evaluation

Answer 5

impact: Labour and Conservative have both been concerned by these and have shaped policy as a result (labour literacy strategy, con-free schools)

evaluation:
- Torrance states PISA isn’t comparable because there are different sample sizes, tests and ages involved. This gives an invalid picture
- Wiliam states each country organises their education differently, so it is impossible to say what could work for the UK

Question 6

Schools run like businesses, growth of capitalism (Rikowski) impact and evaluation

Answer 6

Impact:

Privatisation- businesses taking over education
(endogenous and exogenous factors)
- sponsorship of academies
- marketisation of schools
- schools subletting facilities or teachers
- performance related pay

Evaluation:
- Schools running like a business is for the benefit of shareholders not students.
- Money for teaching and learning goes to marketisation :(
- Creates sink schools due to formula funding
- Academies and Free Schools can employ unqualified teachers and pay low wages

Question 7

Expansion of UK education services impact and evaluation

Answer 7

Impact:
- Nord Anglia has over 42 schools worldwide offering a ‘global british education’
- Eton, Harrow and other private schools also operate like a franchise

Evaluation:
- Acts like cultural imperialism- spreading the west’s promotion of education
- Schools are commercial enterprises and need to make profits

Question 8

How has globalisation impacted the national curriculum?

Answer 8

• national literacy and numeracy hours (1998-2010).
• slimming down of the NC (2010-2015) to ‘essential knowledge’ Michael Gove.
• raising entry requirements for teachers, as done in Finland.
• ‘master teachers’ (2014) in all state schools (if elected), as done in singapore.

Question 9

globalisation definition

Answer 9

increase in the interconnectedness of cultural, political, and economical services around the world

Question 10

Cola-isation

Answer 10

Private companies using their brands in schools. This makes schools seem the same (homogenised)
for example culinera, bic, postura

Question 11

Privatisation

Answer 11

• the transferring of assets and services from the state to private providers= not state funded, they take it over and run it (private companies)

NOT private schools

Question 12

Fragmentation

postmodernist idea?

Answer 12

the breaking up of state run services as these are sold off to private companies for them to make a profit (Ball!!)

Question 13

endogenous

Answer 13

internal privatisation

Question 14

exogenous

Answer 14

external privatisation

Question 15

Key concepts of conservative educational policy from 2015

Answer 15

• multi academy trusts (MATs)/academy chains
• progress 8
• global educational league tables
• PISA tests
• EBacc
• Meritocracy
• Selective schools
• Grammar schools
• Social mobility

Question 16

conservative educational policy (2015+): globalisation (PISA tests)

Answer 16

• big feature of edu policy since 1997
• this is primarily a result of needing to compete in a global marketplace
• in order to compete in a global economy, politicians argued we need a good edu system that provides a well qualified labour force
• good education is seen to lead to good workers and good economic prospects
• educational performance has been measured globally using PISA tests: every 3 years, 70 countries take tests in maths, reading and science using a sample of 15 year olds. Asian countries usually dominate
• However, not all students answer all questions, instead an algorithm is used to calculate a possible outcome.

Question 17

conservative educational policy (2015+): academies

Answer 17

• by 2016, 61% of secondary schools had become academies. There was a growth in academy chains (or MATs). The government wanted all schools to become academies
• Hannay (2016) identified that there had been little evidence that convertor academies has better results than LEA schools. He found the same for sponsored academies
• However, the sponsored academies do achieve better results for low attaining and disadvantaged students compared to similar LEA schools
• MATs make up a disproportionate number of the lowest performing schools

Question 18

conservative educational policy (2015+): progress 8 & evaluation

Answer 18

• introduced in 2016, P8 replaced the 5A*-C measure of school performance
• P8 uses the KS2 results to predict an outcome of results
• for every result above the predicted, additional points are added to a school’s performance table

strengths:
- removed ‘educational triage’ from previous measures
- means every student counts

disadvantages:
- should schools be blamed for underachievement which occurs because of poverty?
- it is unfair to compare schools in wealthy areas to those in poor areas

Question 19

conservative educational policy (2015+): EBacc & evaluation

Answer 19

• in 2010, a ‘core curriculum’ was introduced called the English Baccalaureate (EBacc)
• students should take 5 ‘academic’ subjects to study: maths, english, science, history, or geography and a language.
• This was made compulsory in 2015
• In 2023, only 38% of students were entered for the EBacc

Evaluation:
- less room for vocational and creative subjects to be studied
- shortage of specialist teachers to meet the target set by the government (90% by 2020)
- improved results for all in English and maths including disadvantaged students

Question 20

conservative educational policy (2015+): Theresa May’s policies & evaluation

Answer 20

• Meritocracy is key to success for the individual and society
• She saw selective schools as a key way to make this happen, she wanted them to be able to selct by ability
• She saw more grammar schools in disadvantaged areas to be a solution
• she wanted ‘tutor proof’ tests so that middle class families couldn’t just pay for tutors to teach to the test

Evaluation:
- no evidence that grammar schools would improve social mobility
- most grammar schools today are middle class, <3% of students are on FSM
- this would create more ‘sink schools’
- selective education= inequality

Question 21

what is progress 8?

Answer 21

take best 8 subjects, if on target it is zero. below target= negative and above target = +

Question 22

(privatisation) some practices that have been employed that mirror businesses are:
(these are ENDOGENOUS, within schools)

Answer 22

• performance targets (they report progress on)
• performance related pay for teachers too, similar to bonuses
• marketing = more funding
• greater efficiency and profitability = sponsor activities PTA, teacher hours increase, class sizes up.
• schools opt out of LEA control and manage their own school because it was seen as limiting their authority to do what is best for their school (during labour gov, 2nd wave of academisation)
• academisation- importing business principles into education establishments

Question 23

outsourcing of services:
(exogenous)

Answer 23

• management via academy trusts (brand!), colaisation
• educational consultants
• examination services
• developing educational brands (g classroom)
• private investment (PFIs-privately funded initiatives) in building of schools

Question 24

criticisms of privatisation

Answer 24

• large companies influence the content taught
• colaisation (Ball)
• focus on profit rather than progress- some courses cut if unprofitable
• academies can use unqualified and unskilled teachers!
• can opt out of national curriculum