The New Right

Question 1

New Right

Answer 1

• believe the government should impose a framework on schools to encourage competition.
• education Is the transmission of social skills needed to contribute to society.

Question 2

Education Reforms Act 1988

Answer 2

Thatcher’s gov act which aimed to introduce paternalism and marketise education. They did this through introducing competition between schools, publicising results, Ofsted etc.

Question 3

Miriam David (1993)

Answer 3

• coined the term ‘parentocracy’ - ruled by parents or parent power.
• Marketisation

Question 4

Miriam David Overview

Answer 4

• schools are run more like businesses that have to attract customers (parents).
• By competing with each other in the market this gives parents more power to choose (consumer choice) which school their child goes to.
• Schools that provide customers (parents) with what they want will thrive those that don’t will ‘go out of business’.

Question 5

James Buchanan & Gordon Tullock (1962)

Answer 5

Public Choice Theory

Question 6

Buchanan & Tullock

Answer 6

• the education system was a monopoly in which alternatives, different schools and opinions were not available.
• education reflected the interests of the managers and teachers rather than the pupils and parents
• education, like business should be run with consumer choice in mind.

Question 7

Buchanan & Tullock Eval

Answer 7

Privatisation doesn’t always benefit the consumer, EG trains, ticket prices repeatedly rise and consumers don’t have a choice

Question 8

David Evaluation

Answer 8

Competition between schools benefited the middle classes and lower classes, ethnic minorities and rural communities ended up having less effective choice

Question 9

John Chubb & Terry Moe

Answer 9

Marketisation of schools

Question 10

Chubb & Moe Overview

Answer 10

• state run education failed pupils. pupils, parents and citizens should have a say in how the education system is run = that it should be marketised and give consumer choice.
• believed vested interests (government, teachers) undermined the autonomy of schools, restricting their ability to respond to the needs and wishes of parents.
• Instead schools should attract ‘customers’ by competing with other schools and being successful.

Question 11

Chubb & Moe Evaluation

Answer 11

Full marketisation means that schools are more concerned with league tables than pupils needs. Levin + Belfield

Question 12

What did Levin & Belfield find?

Answer 12

• schools which have used greater marketization principles and found only modest improvements in student achievement but combined with greater social inequalities.

Question 13

Margaret Thatcher & Kenneth Baker

Answer 13

Equality of opportunities

Question 14

Thatcher & Baker Overview

Answer 14

• In order to offer the best opportunities to all students they wanted to raise educational standards.
• best way to achieve this was through competition.
• By publishing results, Ofsted and open evenings etc school had to compete, this meant that they raised standards and as a consequence of competition there were more opportunities.
• Those who took advantage of these opportunities succeeded – meritocracy.

Question 15

Margaret Thatcher & Kenneth Baker

Answer 15

• There is a contradiction between wanting schools to be free to compete and imposing a national framework that restricts schools

Question 16

Competition based theory evaluation

Answer 16

David Gilborn or Levin & Belfield

Question 17

Gilborn

Answer 17

In 2001 David Gilborn found that competition leads to marginalisation of working class and ethnic minority students. (they end up in the sink schools)