Key Concepts Flashcards
Compensatory Education Policies
A range of educational policies designed to provide those experiencing cultural or material deprivation with some support to help them have an equal chance of success
Free Schools
Inspired by the Swedish equivalent, Gove’s school run by parents
The Prevent Strategy
A group of strategies to prevent religious extremism
Apprenticeships
A combination of work experience and college based vocational learning
The Wolf Report
A report investigating the equality of vocational education which was very critical
Parental Choice
Policies which have contributed to the ideas that the education system is run by the parents, or that parents have considerable power in shaping the education system
Conservative Government
An era of policy production which focused on introducing marketisation, greater parental control and a National Curriculum
League Tables
As part of the 1988 Education Reform Act, a public display of school results with the aim of making schools compete against each other and allows parental choice
Linear A Levels
Post 16 education which involves a 2 year course leading to a final assessment at the end of the 2 year period, reintroduced by the coalition government
Sure Start
A labour led policy with a range of ways to tackle material and cultural deprivation. Largely cut by subsequent governments.
Vocational Education
Education which focuses on preparation for employment
Marketisation Policies
A group of policies which introduce market forces into education
Privatisation
The process of bringing private companies into education and aspiring to fee paying education
Academies
Schools which have some level of business involvement in their every day running or organisation
Education Reform Act 1988
A very important policy which (among other things) introduced the national curriculum, league tables and parental choice
Comprehensive Schooling
A one size fits all type of school, aimed at creating a level playing field for all pupils
Selective Education
A school which selects students based on some specific criteria
OFSTED
An organisation which monitors the effectiveness of schools
Social Policy
A set of plans or actions put into place by governments, local authorities or other organisations in order to address particular social problems
Education Policy
Policies that reflect the desires and wishes of the government in power and reflect their particular vision for the education system
Marketisation
Running the school like a business
Privileged Skilled Choosers
mc ambitious parents using their cultural and economic capital
Disconnected Local Choosers
wc parents whose choices are restricted by their lack of economic and cultural capital
Semi-Skilled Choosers
Mainly wc but ambitious parents
Meritocracy
Achieving based on your own merit
Organic analogy
A system of inter-related parts of society which are interdependent, similar to the human body
Role allocation
the selection and allocation of individuals to their future work roles, based on their educational achievement
Ideology
A sets of ideas and beliefs that favour one group in society
Correspondance principle
The idea that school and work are similar - the things that it values
Mirror
Operates through the hidden curriculum
Hidden curriculum
The things that you aren’t directly taught at school
e.g. accepting hierarchy, competition, working for rewards
Myth of meritocracy
Meritocracy is a myth, education is made to seem fair too the disadvantaged to prevent a rebellion against the system
Universalistic Standards
Rules, values + standards the apply equally to all members of society
Regardless of who they are
New Right
A political theory
Introduced competition + choice into the education system (marketisation)
SFP
Where a prediction made about a person/ group comes true simply because it has been made
Postmodernism
Approach that stresses the importance of learner choice + school diversity
Specialist skills
Durkheim’s main function of education for work + industrialised complex society
Role allocation
Ensured by education - ‘sifting + sorting’ mechanism
Davis + Moore
Parentocracy
Child’s education = dependent upon wealth + wishes of parents
Rather than ability + efforts of pupils
Interactionism
Sociological theory
Focuses on processes inside schools
ISAs
Agencies such as schools serve to spread the dominant ideology + justify the power of the dominant class
Meritocracy
A society in which status is achieved + rewarded by an individual’s own effort + ability
