Theories: Neoliberalism and the New Right

Question 1

What is Neoliberalism?

Answer 1

• Based on economic principle → free-market economy, limited regulation by the state.
• Encourage privatisation + competition → rising standards.
• State shouldn’t control people.
• Education should enable a country to compete globally.
• Schools = businesses. Parents and pupils = consumers.

Question 2

What is the New Right?

Answer 2

• A conservative political view.
• Incorporates neoliberal ideas.
• Some people are naturally more talented than others.
• Agree with functionalists that education should be run on meritocratic principles of open competition.
• They believe education should socialise pupils into shared values + provide a sense of national identity.

Question 3

(The Market vs the State) What are effects of state control?

Answer 3

• State control has resulted in inefficiency, national economical decline + a lack of personal initiative.
• One size fits all: the state can’t meet people’s needs. Education ends up as one size fits all that doesn’t meet people’s needs or the needs of employers for skilled + motivated workers.
• Schools that get poor results don’t change because they aren’t accountable to their consumers (the pupils, parents + employers). The result = lower standards + a less qualified workforce.

Question 4

What research did Chubb and Moe carry out about consumer choice?

Answer 4

They compared the achievements of 60,000 pupils from low income families in 1,015 state + private schools in the USA.

Question 5

What were the results of Chubb and Moe’s research about consumer choice?

Answer 5

Data shows that pupils from low-income families do about 5% better in private schools.

Question 6

What did this data suggest and demonstrate?

Answer 6

• This suggests that state education is not meritocratic.
• State education has failed to create equal opportunity because it doesn’t have to respond to pupils’ needs.
• Parents + communities can’t do anything about failing schools while the schools are controlled by the state. For example, people in rural areas may only have limited choices of a school.
• Private schools provide high quality education because they are answerable to paying consumers (the parents).

Question 7

What are the solutions to these problems about consumer choice?

Answer 7

• Market system in education.
• Give consumers the control.
• This should be done via a voucher system in which each family would be given a voucher to spend on buying education from a school of their choice.

Question 8

What are the two roles for the State?

Answer 8

• Imposing a framework.
• Transmission of shared culture.

Question 9

How does the State impose a framework?

Answer 9

• 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, the state gives parents information with which to make a more informed choice between schools.

Question 10

How does the State ensure a transmission of shared culture?

Answer 10

By imposing a single National Curriculum, it seeks to guarantee that schools socialise pupils into a single cultural heritage.

Question 11

What is an evaluation of the two roles of the state?

Answer 11

• Gewirtz (1995) + Ball (1994) both argue that competition between schools benefit 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 not state control but social inequality + inadequate funding of state schools.
• There is a contradiction between the New Right’s support for parental choice on one hand + the state imposing a compulsory national curriculum on all its schools on the other.
• Marxists argue that education doesn’t impose a shared national culture, as the New Right claim, but imposes the culture of a dominant minority ruling class and devalues the culture of the w.c. + ethnic minorities.

Question 12

Overall summary: Who benefits from competition between schools?

Answer 12

The middle class.

Question 13

What are the real causes of low educational standards?

Answer 13

Social inequality and inadequate funding of state schools.

Question 14

In what way is the New Right view contradictory?

Answer 14

There is a contradiction between the New Right’s support for parental choice on one hand + the state imposing a compulsory national curriculum on all its schools on the other.

Question 15

Whose culture is imposed on schools?

Answer 15

A dominant minority ruling class.