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social policy Flashcards

1
Q

What is a social policy?

A

a plan/ action made by a state agency to change a social problem

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2
Q

What social policy was introduced in 1880? What were they taught?

A

compulsory education to 10yrs old
taught domestic or technical skills according to gender roles, basic skills and religion

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3
Q

What social policy was introduced in 1944?

A

Education Act

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4
Q

What did the Education Act aim to do?

A

tackle one of the five evils from the Beveridge report
abolish inequality
help rebuild UK after the war

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5
Q

What did the Education Act change/introduce?

A

compulsory education to 14yrs old
tripartite system
11+ exam

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6
Q

What schools were in the tripartite system? What were the differences between?

A

technical + secondary modern - practical and vocational subjects- led to low skilled jobs
grammar - academic subjects - led to uni or high skilled jobs

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7
Q

How did you get into grammar schools in the Education Act?

A

pass the 11+ exam - measured innate ability
20% people passed

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8
Q

What was a strength of the Education Act?

A

helped working class achieve status - reinforce meritocracy

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9
Q

What are some criticisms of the Education Act?

A

technical schools too expensive
if fail 11+ labelled as a failure
working class often not allowed to sit 11+
11+ unreliable and invalid - wrote in elaborate code, unable to measure innate IQ, girls need higher pass rate
not all places had grammar schools - 12% grammar schools vs 40% in other areas

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10
Q

What social policy was introduced in 1965?

A

Comprehensive Education Act

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11
Q

What was the aim of the Comprehensive Education Act?

A

to encourage meritocracy and allow working class to have same opportunities as middle class
to follow a broader curriculum

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12
Q

What did the Comprehensive Education Act change/introduce?

A

abolish tripartite system
abolish selection of pupils at 11yrs old
educate in the same school type

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13
Q

What was a strength of the Comprehensive Education Act?

A

recognised that children develop at different ages

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14
Q

What are some criticisms of the Comprehensive Education Act?

A

catchment areas separate social classes
7% privately educated, 5% attend grammar
setting and streaming replaced inequality though different schools to inside the schools

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15
Q

What theorists don’t like the Comprehensive Education Act?

A

New Right
lacks discipline (Willis L2L)
poor results
no incentive to improve the standard of education

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16
Q

When was the conservative government in power?

A

1979-1997
2010-2024

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17
Q

What did the conservative government want to do to the education system?

A

market forces should guide society- consumers choose
all schools should be the same and work hard to attract students by raising their standards

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18
Q

What was the Conservative governments 2 policies? (1979-1997)

A

new vocationalism
Education Reform Act (1988)

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19
Q

What was the aim of the new vocationalism policy?

A

tackle youth unemployment of 3 million
schools blamed for not teaching work skills

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20
Q

What did the new vocationalism policy change/introduce?

A

NVQs - job specific qualifications
GNVQs - alternative to academic qualifications
apprenticeships - college/work training with NVQs
YTS - Youth Training Schemes - 1-2 yrs work based training for school leavers - £35 per week

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21
Q

What is a strength of the new vocationalism policy?

A

reduced crime- kept young people off the streets

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22
Q

What are some weaknesses of the new vocationalism policy?

A

children are cheap labour (reserve army)
masks unemployment figures- classed as in training not unemployed
no proof that schools don’t teach work skills - unemployment is from lack of jobs, not skill
YTS was sex stereotyped (Buswell) - reinforce gender roles - reinforce women’s low paid work - 94% female in hairdressing, 99% male in construction

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23
Q

When was the Education Reform Act introduced?

A

1988

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24
Q

What was the Education Reform Act’s aim?

A

marketisation - improve schools by increasing competition
schools funding cut if underperforming
parentocracy - increase the choice for parents

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25
Q

What did the Education Reform Act change/introduce?

A

testing
national curriculum
league tables
opting out
open enrolment

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26
Q

How did the Education Reform Act change testing in school? Why were they introduced?

A

introduced SATs at 7, 11, 14
GCSEs at 16 , A Levels
monitor school performance objectively

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27
Q

How did the Education Reform Act change the curriculum in school? Why were they introduced?

A

nationalise the curriculum - all schools teach the same thing
make standardised comparisons

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28
Q

What did the Education Reform Act’s league tables do? Why were they introduced?

A

schools test results published to help drive up competition + inform parents on the best schools in their area (parentocracy)
Ofsted (1992/3) inspections to ensure quality of the schools

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29
Q

What was the Education Reform Act’s opting out? Why were they introduced?

A

schools were able to opt out of local authority control - manage own budget, decisions and pupils
schools ran by local authority - no incentive to improve individually

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30
Q

What was the Education Reform Act’s open enrolment? Why were they introduced?

A

parents able to send child to any local state school
parentocracy - ability to make informed choice

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31
Q

What is a strength of the Education Reform Act?

A

school results improved

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32
Q

What are some weaknesses of the Education Reform Act?

A

significant differences in gender, class, ethnicity results
tests increase stress on students + teachers - high staff turnover in deprived areas
league tables are counterproductive- encourage cheating & low ability barred from taking exams + put into easy, low status subjects
reinforce class inequality- MC able to put children into best schools

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33
Q

What are some social policies that support marketisation?

A

national curriculum, testing
league tables, Ofsted
funding formulas
tuition fees for uni
academisation
business sponsorship of schools
free schools (made by parents)

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34
Q

Why does marketisation reinforce class inequality according to Gerwitz?

A

3 types of choosers:
privileged chooser- MC, uses economic + cultural capital to get child into better schools
semi-skilled chooser - WC, ambitious for child but lack material+ cultural capital to get into better schools wanted
disconnected chooser - WC, no knowledge of school ratings, choose the closest school
MC able to get into best school- leaves WC in lower schools

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35
Q

Why does the Education Reform Act’s funding formula create vicious/ virtuous circles?

A

vicious: school gets bad results > decrease in funding > school becomes less popular > good students move to better schools > school gets bad students from good schools > school gets bad results
virtuous: school gets good results > increase funding > school is popular > silt shift bad students > cream skim pupils

36
Q

What are some criticisms of marketisation (New Right)?

A

don’t pay for school so can’t truly be a market
league tables encourage teachers to cheat
ERA introduced to reduce power of labour councils over schools
almost no choice for parents between schools
class inequality reinforced - MC and WC separated by being able to get into better schools in better areas
made school divisive + competitive

37
Q

What years were New Labour in power/ government?

A

1997-2010

38
Q

What policies did New Labour introduce?

A

specialist schools
city academies
sure start centres
Education Maintenance Allowance

39
Q

Why did New Labour introduce specialist school (aim of the policy)?

A

continue with marketisation and parentocracy by giving parents more info to what a school is expert in

40
Q

What did New Labour’s specialist schools policy introduce/change?

A

make schools that an expert in a subject area - eg. maths, english, PE, computer science

41
Q

What was a strength of specialist schools?

A

additional funding helped schools improve facilities

42
Q

What was a weakness of specialist schools?

A

schools often weren’t an expert in the area
given funding to improve in that area but gave a false impression to parents

43
Q

Why did New Labour introduce city academies (policy aim)?

A

to improve standards in deprived, WC areas - London, Manchester, Birmingham

44
Q

What did New Labour introduce/ change through the city academies?

A

the deprived schools in London, Manchester or Birmingham get more funding, new super heads and expert teachers
schools ran themselves independently with direct govt. funding

45
Q

What was a strength of New Labour’s city academies policy?

A

behaviour rigorously enforced
schools changed from the least successful to the most - eg. Mossbourne Academy - headteacher went on to run Ofsted

46
Q

What was a weakness of New Labour’s city academies policy?

A

schools still able to silt shift students
weakened the power of local govt.

47
Q

Why did New Labour introduce sure start centres?

A

to boost WC achievement level- 18 month learning gap between WC and MC children

48
Q

What did New Labour’s sure start centres do?

A

offer childcare, parental advice + employment coaching to WC parents
2010 peak had 3,600 centres with a budget of £1.8 billion

49
Q

What is a strength of New Labour’s sure start centres?

A

had a positive impact on WC children’s SATs at 7 yrs old

50
Q

What is a weakness of New Labour’s sure start centres?

A

MC mothers used the centres as a form of free childcare and intimidated WC mothers + made them leave the groups
- largely closed since 2010

51
Q

Why did New Labour introduce the Education Maintenance Allowance?

A

to boost WC participation in 6th form + Uni
wanted to increase WC participation of higher education to 50%

52
Q

What did New Labour’s Education Maintenance Allowance introduce/change?

A

gave £10-30 a week to 6th form students who met their deadlines and achieved good grades

53
Q

What is a strength of New Labour’s Education Maintenance Allowance?

A

met the hidden costs of education

54
Q

What is a weakness of New Labour’s Education Maintenance Allowance?

A

didn’t have to be spent of educational resources

55
Q

What 5 policies did the conservative government introduce? (2010- 2024)

A

treble tuition fees to £9000
pupil premium
free schools
A Level and GCSE Reform - 2016
expansion of academies

56
Q

Why did the conservative government treble tuition fees to £9000

A

to further the marketisation of education
encourage weaker universities to improve so they could charge more money for the course as better universities

57
Q

What is a strength to the conservative government trebling tuition fees to £9000?

A

the most 2:1 and 1st level degrees have been awarded

58
Q

What are some weaknesses to the conservative government trebling tuition fees to £9000?

A

most universities charge the full fee even if they are weak
students have been turned into commodities (marxists) - focus on money instead of requirements to meet societies needs (functionalist)
universities focus on accommodation and facilities not education
competition with foreign students have been heightened

59
Q

Why did the conservative government introduce pupil premium?

A

to boost the attainment of students - link between deprivation and underperformance

60
Q

What did the conservatives pupil premium introduce/change?

A

removed labour’s EMA
gave schools £900-2400 to spend on student
eligible for pupil premium if in care, adopted, on free school meals or income support

61
Q

What are the weaknesses to conservative’s pupil premium?

A

most schools do not use it on students but for school costs because of funding cuts - 9% decrease since 2010
most parents aren’t aware of money given

62
Q

Why did the conservatives introduce free schools?

A

to encourage parentocracy
allow parents to raise standards of their child’s education
to increase local competition

63
Q

What were the conservatives free schools?

A

schools set up by parents or businesses
free from local authority but funded by the government

64
Q

What are weaknesses of the conservatives free schools?

A

mostly have been overtook by academies
under 3% of schools are free schools
parents use material + cultural capital to exclude WC- PE lessons include archery, horse riding, yoga not football, rounders ect.

65
Q

What is the national average percentage of students on pupil premium per school? What is it for free schools?

A

national average = 21%
free schools = 3.6%

66
Q

Why did the conservatives introduce the A Level and GCSE Reform?

A

teachers helping students too much with coursework to get them higher on league tables
resit culture to get higher grades
invalid results threatened parentocracy

67
Q

What did the conservatives A Level and GCSE Reform introduce/change?

A

now are 2 year linear courses
most coursework changed and changed to controlled tests
GCSEs graded 1-9

68
Q

What are strengths of the conservative A Level and GCSE Reform?

A

1-9 grading allowed top achievers (9= A**) to be filtered to the top - role allocation- functionalism

69
Q

How many state schools are now academies? What government expanded them?

A

80%
conservative- 2010- 2024

70
Q

What is globalisation? Who says this?

A

Giddens - the increasing interconnectedness of societies

71
Q

What are the 3 globalisation social policies?

A

competition with international students (Kelly)
commodification of students (Ball)
multi-cultural curriculum (Holborn)

72
Q

What does Kelly say influences education policies?

A

competition with other countries - need skilled workers to keep the UK in the G7

73
Q

What league table ranks students internationally?

A

PISA - Programme for International Student Assessment

74
Q

What did Michael Gove use to justify more rigorous testing?

A

falling position on PISA tables - too many pupils underperforming

75
Q

What did Michael Gove use to justify the expansion of free schools and academies?

A

schools in Finland and Singapore outperforming UK

76
Q

What changes to the curriculum were made to compete with international students?

A

compulsory teaching computer coding - growing market

77
Q

What were the PISA rankings in reading over the New Labour, Coalition and Conservative governments? (2009, 2015, 2018)

A

New Labour (2009) = 25th
Coalition (2015) = 22nd
Conservative (2018) = 18th

78
Q

What does Ball say education policies are used to do?

A

commodify students

79
Q

How are students commodified?

A

tuition fees for university

80
Q

What problem has the commodification of students brought for UK pupils? What stats to prove this?

A

have to compete with international students
70% say tuition is too high
20% say they would move abroad if cheaper

81
Q

Why may functionalists not like the commodification of students?

A

challenges meritocracy - foreign students have lower acceptance grades because they pay more - not because of talent/hard work

82
Q

What does Holborn say globalisation has led to?

A

a multi- cultural curriculum

83
Q

What aspects of education is multi-cultural?

A

R.E - have to teach 2 faiths not just Christianity
geography - indigenous cultures

84
Q

What percentage of the UK is white? How many Christians practise? (2001 Census)

A

81% white
11% of Christians practise

85
Q

How has multi-cultural curriculums benefited vulnerable groups?

A

by increasing the inequality between students
prioritising performance of all groups

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