Social Policy Flashcards
What did the 1870 Education Act introduce?
The 1870 Education Act introduced elementary education for children up to the age of 10. There was a focus on SRs (reasing, writing and maths). Introduced because: needed a literate workforce, for foreign competition and the need for people to take religious instruction. The Act was made compulsory in 1880 and it was passed by the government and operated by the local parishes.
What did the 1880 Education Act do?
The 1880 Education Act made education compulsory. Age range rose to 13.
What was the 1944 Education Act?
The 1944 (Butler) Education Act promised secondary education for all. The act attempted to achieve this by raising the school leaving age and dividing the all-age elementary education into primary and secondary schools. It also introduced the tripartite system where the which created three types of state funded secondary schools. The 11+ tests would determine which school the pupil attended.
What were the features of secondary schools?
- Secondary modern schools had a budget of 1/3 than that of grammar schools.
- Pupils in Secondary modern schools seen as failures and had low self esteem.
- 4/5 failed.
- More grammar schools for boys.
- Gradual discontent among M/C parents for their children going to Secondary schools.
What happened in 1965?
In the majority of areas, comprehensive schools were introduced in 1965. The aim of the comprehensive system was to have one type which all pupils would attend. This would create a more meritocratic system as all students would would receive the same schooling regardless of social class and gender. The 11+ no longer existed in the majority of areas, and Secondary modern schools and grammar schools were replaced by comprehensives.
What were the advantages of comprehensive schools?
- Philosophy of equality was a good thing about comprehensive schools.
- W/C can now access good facilities.
- Mixed classes so mixed ability.
- Gave W/C people their first time/chance of getting to university.
- Gave more children the opportunity for social mobility.
What were the disadvantages of comprehensive schools?
- Decision to go comprehensive was down to each Local Authority.
- In some areas, grammar schools were kept.
- Some comprehensives began to stream.
- Some comps were too big and too impersonal.
- Low standards. No real checks on people. Lack of government check/control on teaching.
In summary, what did the 1944 Education Act do?
From 1944, education began to be influenced by the idea of meritocracy - that individuals should achieve their status in life through their own efforts and abilities, rather than it being ascribed at birth by their class background.
The 1944 Education Act brought in the tripartite system. Children were to be selected and allocated to one of three different types of secondary school, supposedly according to their aptitudes and abilities. These were to be identified by the 11+ exam.
How did the different schools function in the tripartite system?
- Grammar schools offered an academic curriculum and access to non-manual jobs and higher education. They were for pupils with academic ability who passed the 11+. These pupils were mainly middle-class.
- Secondary modern schools offered a non-academic ‘practical’ curriculum and access to manual work for pupils who failed the 11+. These pupils were mainly working class.
- Technical schools existed in a few areas only, so in practice it was more a bipartite than a tripartite system.
What were the problems with the tripartite system?
Rather than promoting meritocracy, the tripartite system and 11+ reproduced 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.
The tripartite system also legitimatised inequality through the ideology that ability is inborn. It was thus argued that ability could be measured early on in life, through the 11+. However, in reality children’s environment greatly affects their chances of success.
Why did the conservatives want to change social policy?
When the conservatives came to power in 1979 they were ready to change social policy. They believed that the existing education system did not meet the needs of employers and industry closely enough, it was not reaching high enough standards, and was failing to benefit the most disadvantaged groups in society.
What is marketisation?
Marketisation is the process whereby services, like education or health, that were previously controlled and run by the state, have government or local authority (local council) control and support reduced or removed altogether, and operate like independently managed private businesses, subject to the free market forces of supply and demand, based on competition and consumer choice. Marketisation as a means of improving educational standards is rooted in the neoliberal approach and was originally an idea of New Right theorists like Chubb and Moe.
What did the 1988 Education Reform Act introduce?
The Conservative Part governed Britain between 1979-1997. In 1988 Margaret Thatcher’s government passed an education act that brought far reaching changes to the education system in England:
- SATs at the end of key stage 1-3 Yr 2, 6 and 9
- National Curriculum (very good for girls)
- GCSEs replaced O levels and CSEs
- Independent City Technology Colleges were established
- Schools became Grant maintained - opted out of local authority control
- Formula Funding - paid according to number of students in the school.
- Parents allowed a free choice of schools (although catchment areas still operated).
- 4 yearly inspections by OFSTED would ensure these recommendations were followed.
How was marketisation beneficial?
- Independence - allowed schools and colleges to control their own affairs and run like private businesses.
- Competition - compete with one another for customers (students).
- Choice - giving customers (parents and students) a choice of schools.
What is parentocracy?
Parentocracy = ‘Parent Power’, with parents having more rights and choice of schools.
How has marketisation benefitted school diversity?
To satisfy consumer (parent) choice, since the 1988 there has been a growing range of different types of state-funded schools, offering parents more choice of schools than ever before. The promotion of school diversity is accompanied by encouraging ‘partners’ like private businesses, universities and colleges, community and parent groups and educational charities to become more involved in running schools, and to help to raise standards by using their expert knowledge or enthusiasm.
How has marketisation raised standards?
As consumers of education in a free market, parents could choose between a diversity of competing schools, rejecting some in favour of others. Schools would be forced to improve standards to attract students (and money). Schools or colleges that performed well would grow and improve even more, and poorly performing schools or colleges would risk losing money as student numbers fell, and would be forced to improve, or face being closed, or being turned into an independently managed academy or taken over by another academy. It was therefore thought these marketisation processes would lead to improvement of all schools, more satisfied parents and students, and a more efficient and effective education system, with higher standards.
What are the disadvantages of marketisation?
- The myth of parentocracy
- The Educational triage
- Difficulties in improving schools and colleges
- Dumbing down
- Problems with the national curriculum and testing
- Reduced quality control
- Chaos in the education system
What is the myth of parentocracy?
The Middle class has gained the most. Ball et al. (1996) argue that parents are now encouraged to see themselves as consumers of education, with good parenting seen, at least in part, as taking on the on the responsibilities of school choice. However, they point out that parental choice follows a pattern related to social class differences, and contributes to the reproduction of the social class inequalities in education.
Tough and Brooks (2007) point out that better-educated middle-class families with higher incomes are more likely to make choices based on a school’s performance, while those from more disadvantaged working class families are more likely to choose schools that are near to their homes and which their child’s friends attend, rather than because of its position in the School Performance Table (league tables).
Parentocracy disguises the fact that not all parents have the same freedom to exercise this choice. Some of the highest-performing schools carry out covert selection, and deliberately try to dissuade poorer parents from applying.
What did Machin and Vernoit find about the myth of parentocracy?
Machin and Vernoit (2010) found evidence that the 2010 - 2015 coalition government’s new-style academies that opened from September 2010 onwards were significantly more advantaged than the average secondary school. These new-style academies contained lower proportions of pupils who were eligible for free school meals and were likely to reinforce advantage and make worse existing inequalities in schooling.
What are the middle class better placed than many working class parents to do?
- Shop around and find the best schools
- Understand and compare school league tables
- Know more about how to assess Oftsed school inspection reports and what constitutes a ‘good school’
- Afford more easily to move into the catchment areas of the hugest performing schools
- Afford higher transport costs, giving their children a wider choice of schools
- Know more about how popular schools allocate places, and to make more effective use of appeals procedures should they be refused a place at their chosen school.
How does the education system remain socially selective?
The education system remains socially selective, and the higher the social class of the parents, the better are the schools to which they send their children, and these schools stay better because they are supported by advantaged middle-class parents.
Those who have already benefitted from education the most will gain more, while those who are more disadvantaged may become further disadvantaged.
What is the educational Triage?
The competitive climate and the importance of school league tables mean teachers try to ensure the school’s survival within the educational marketplace through the educational triage. Teachers may allocate more resources and teacher time to brighter students, or those, for example, on the C/D grade borderline at GCSE, who are more likely to deliver the prestigious five GCSE A-C results or the six GCSEs A-C making up the EBacc, disadvantaging students who are less likely to achieve these standards.
A report by the House of Commons Education Committee of MPs (2011) suggested the introduction of the EBacc would lead teachers devoting more time to pupils who have a chance of achieving this standard, who are more likely to come from middle class homes and that there was a ‘serious risk that schools will simply ignore their less academically successful pupils’, who are more likely to come from working class homes.
What are the difficulties in improving schools and colleges?
Competition between schools and colleges for students, and therefore for money, may make it harder for poorer schools and colleges to improve as students go elsewhere. Less successful schools and colleges lose income and may therefore lack the resources to improve their performance to attract more students to match their successful rivals.
The pupil premium - extra money for poorer students - may not be enough to encourage higher performing schools to try to attract poorer students as they are often the hardest to teach.
What is dumbing down?
Retaining students may mean not punishing students too hard for fear of losing them and may lead to a ‘dumbing down’ of teaching and subject content.
