Privatisation + Marketisation

• Blurring the public/private boundary

  Senior officials in public sector (directors of local authorities, head teachers) set up/work for private sector education businesses

  • bid for contracts to provide services to schools

  Pollack: flow of personnel allows companies buy "insider knowledge" to help win contracts
• Privatisation + Globalisation of Educational Policy

  Most exam boards are foreign-owned

  e.g. edexcel owned by US educational publishing Pearson

  Buckingham + Scanlon: UK's 4 leading education software companies owned by global multinationals - Disney, Mattel, Vivendi and Hombro

  Private companies exporting UK education policy to other countries and providing services to deliver policies

  • national state becoming less important in decision-making policy, education shifting to a privatised global level
• Cola-isation of schools

  Private sector penetrating education indirectly

  e.g. vending machines on school premises + brand loyalty through displays of logos and sponsorships

  Monar: schools targeted by private companies as kind of product endorsement

  • benefits to schools = limited
  • Beder - UK families spent £110,000 in Tesco supermarkets in return for a single computer in schools
• Education as a commodity

  Ball concludes privatisation is becoming a key factor shaping educational policy

  • moving educational services out of public sector controlled by national state, and provided by private companies
  • education turned into "legitimate object of private profit making"

  Marxists: Hall sees academies as handing public services to private capitalists

  • Conservative polices leaning towards "neoliberal revolution"

  Neoliberals (from Marxist view): claim privatisation and competition driving up standards = myth used to legitimate turning of education into source of private profit
• Policies on gender

  • 19th century females were largely excluded from higher education - under tripartite system girls had to achieve higher marks than boys in 11+ exam
  • policies like GIST introduced to reduce gender differences in subject choice
• Ethnicity - Assimilation: policies focused on minority ethnic groups, to assimilate into mainstream British culture

  • especially if English is not first language
  • critics argue minority groups already risk underachieving if they do speak English + real cause = racism/poverty
• Ethnicity - Multicultural Education: polices that promote the achievements of ethnic groups, valuing different cultures in school curriculum - raising their self-esteem

  • critics argue MCE is mere tokenism that picks out stereotypical features of minority cultures for inclusion in curriculum
  • New Right: perpetuating cultural divisions, education should promote shared national culture and identity
• Ethnicity - Social Inclusion

  Mirza: tackling structural causes of ethnic inequality, educational policy takes "soft" approach focusing on culture, behaviour and home life
• Parentocracy

  • publication of league tables + Ofsted inspection reports give parents information to choose right school
  • business sponsorship of schools
  • formula funding
  • schools competing to attract pupils
  • Introduction of tuition fees for higher education
• Parentocracy

  Miriam David: describes marketised education as "parentocracy"

  • power shifts away from producers to consumers, claim it encourages diversity and gives parents more choice - raising standards
• reproduction of inequality: Ball and Whitty note marketisation policies have reproduced class inequality between schools
• League tables - ensure schools achieve good results = more demand

  • parents attracted to good ranking
  • schools with poor league tables take less able pupils (mainly WC) - whose results are are unattractive to MC parents
• cream-skimming - "good" schools are more selective when choosing customers

  • recruit higher achieving pupils (mainly MC)
• silt-shifting - "good" schools avoid taking less able pupils who are likely to get poor results + damage school's position in league tables
• The Funding Formula: schools allocated funds based on formula on how many pupils they will attract

  popular schools = more funds = can afford better-qualified

  • unpopular schools lose income, so difficult to match teacher skills + facilities of successful rivals

  Institute for Public Policy Research (2012): found competitive education system produced more segregation between different social backgrounds
• Myth of Parentocracy

  Ball -believes "Parentocracy" is appearance of marketisation

  • education system seems based on parents having free choice of school
  • makes it appear that parents have some freedom to choose where to send child

  e.g. MC parents can afford sending child to far, desirable schools

  disguising fact schooling continues to reproduce class inequality, so education appears fair + inevitable
• New Labour and Inequality: new government (1997-2010) introduced number of policies to reduce inequality

  • designating deprived areas as Education Action Zones - additional resources
  • Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs) - payments to students from low-income backgrounds to encourage them to gain better qualifications 


  EVALUATION

  Melissa Benn: see contradiction between policies and commitment to marketisation - "New Labour Paradox"

  e.g. introducing fees for higher education may deter people from low-income backgrounds