The Role Of Education: The New Right Perspective (Part 2) Flashcards
What is the New Rights main belief on education?
-The state cannot meet people’s needs, and that people are best left to meet their own needs through the free market.
-Therefore favouring the marketisation of education (rankings)
What are the similarities between the New Right and Functionalist views?
- Some people are more naturally talented than others
- Favour an education system run on meritocratic principles of open competition.
- Education should socialise pupils into shared values.
- Prepares young people for work and wider society.
What is a key difference between Functionalism and the New Right?
-The New Right do not believe the current education system is achieving its goals and fulfilling it’s role. The reason for failure is that it is run by the state.
-State education systems take a ‘one size fits all’ approach, imposing uniformity + disregarding local needs. The local consumers have no say.
-State education systems are therefore unresponsive + inefficient.
-The NR’s solution to these problems is the marketisation of education.
-Competition between schools + empowering consumers will bring greater diversity, choice + efficiency to schools.
According to Chubb and Moe why has state run education failed in the US?
-It has not created equal opportunity + has failed the needs of disadvantaged groups.
-It is inefficient because it fails to produce pupils with the skills needed by the economy.
-Private schools deliver higher quality education because, unlike state schools, they are answerable to paying consumers (parents).
Chubb and Moe; Consumer choice (How did they gather their research?)
-Chubb and Moe base their arguments on a comparison of the achievements of 60,000 pupils from low-income families in 1,015 state + private schools, together with the findings of a parent survey + case studies of ‘failing’ schools apparently being ‘turned around’.
-Their evidence shows that pupils from low-income families consistently do about 5% better in private than in state schools.
-Chubb + Moe therefore call for the intro of a market system in state education that would put control in the hands of the consumers.
-They propose a system in which each family would be given a voucher to spend on buying education from a school of their choice.
-This forces schools to become more responsive to parent’s wishes since the vouchers would be the schools main source of income.
Two roles for the state
-In the NR view there remains 2 important roles for the state:
1.) The state imposes a framework on schools within which they have to compete. For example, by publishing Ofsted inspection reports + league tables of schools’ exam results.
2.) The state ensures that schools transmit a shared culture. By imposing a single National Curriculum, it seeks to guarantee that schools socialise pupils into a single cultural heritage.
What do the NR believe about education + national identity?
-Education should reaffirm the national identity.
-For example, the curriculum should emphasise Britain’s positive role in world history + teach British lit, and there should be a Christian act of worship in school each day because Christianity is Britain’s main religion.
Evaluation of the NR perspective
❌Gewirtz (1995) + Ball (1994) both argue that competition between schools benefits the m/c, who can use their cultural + economic capital to gain access to more desirable schools.
❌Critics argue the real cause of low educational standards is social inequality + inadequate funding of state schools.
❌Marxists argue that education does not impose a shared national culture, as the NR claim, but imposes the culture of a dominant minority ruling class + devalues the culture of the w/c + ethnic minorities.
