Social policy and education

Question 1

Crowther Report

Answer 1

Reports such as the 1959 Crowther Report suggest that a lot of working-class talent was being wasted and the system was producing too few skilled workers.

Question 2

Chitty

Answer 2

Chitty (2014) found that in 2011, there were still 161 grammar schools educating 158,000 pupils or 5% of secondary school children.

Question 3

Finn

Answer 3

Finn (1987) argued that there was a hidden political agenda to vocational training:

> provided cheap labour for employers and kept the pay rates of young workers low

> reduced politically embarrassing unemployment statistics

> intended to reduce crime by removing young people from the streets.

Question 4

Cohen

Answer 4

Phil Cohen (1984) argued that the real purpose of vocational training is to create ‘good’ attitudes and work discipline rather than actual job skills. In this way, young people come to accept a likely future of low-paid and unskilled work.

Question 5

Buswell

Answer 5

According to Buswell (1987), training schemes were structured so as to reproduce gender inequality. She pointed out that the types of schemes into which girls were channelled, such as retail work, led to occupations where they were low paid when young, and would work part-time when older, reflecting women’s position in the labour market.

Question 6

DfE

Answer 6

According to figures from the DfE, 6% of Apprenticeships in hairdressing in 2006 were taken up by males compared to 94% by females. Retail fares slightly better with a 38/62 percentage split, whereas in construction crafts, the male-to-female ratio is 99 to 1.

Question 7

Ball et al.

Answer 7

Research by Stephen Ball et al. (1994) showed that middle-class parents were better able to impress at interviews, write convincing letters and manipulate the system, for example, by making multiple applications to schools. They could also use their economic capital to pay transport costs if better schools were further away.

Question 8

Higher Education Statistics Agency

Answer 8

Statistics from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show that by 2004/5, only 28.7% of young entrants to university came from lower socioeconomic groups. Class inequalities in higher education were increasing.

Question 9

Tomlinson

Answer 9

Sally Tomlinson pointed out that the middle-class has gained the most out of New Labour’s policies. They were best placed to ensure that their children attended the best performing schools and continued to do well. In addition, focus on exams and league tables meant that much education had become ‘examination techniques, rote learning and revision’.

Question 10

Bernstein

Answer 10

Class inequalities remain stubbornly present even during times of progressive educational policies. In 1971, Bernstein wrote that ‘education cannot compensate for society’ - in other words, education will tend to reflect social inequalities rather than eliminate them. That seems to be the story of education under New Labour.

Question 11

Woolcock

Answer 11

Woolcock (2014) found that by August 2014, there were 331 free schools open or approved.

Question 12

Education Journal

Answer 12

The Education Journal (2013) found that by 2013/14, the pupil premium amounted to a not insubstantial £900 per pupil.

Question 13

Ratcliffe

Answer 13

Ratcliffe’s 2014 report found that although 53% of teachers in a survey said their school was using the money to raise the achievement of disadvantaged children, the remainder said it was being used for other purposes, such as helping to plug the funding gap left by reductions in government funding or to help all pupils regardless of their family income.