Educational policies

• What are educational policies?

  Strategies put into place by the government in order to improve education, introduced by legal changes and instructions to school.
• what was introduced with the 1944 education act?

  • Tripartite system (Grammar, Secondary Modern,Technical)

  organised by completion of 11+ exam.
• what does a grammar school consist of?

  • Purely middle class
  • Excelled in the 11+ exam
  • opportunities for higher education and better jobs
• what does a secondary modern school consist of?

  • mixture of middle and working class
  • did mediocre in 11+ exam
  • ended up in average jobs with no better oppportunities
• what does a technical school consist of?

  • purely working class
  • failed 11+ exam
  • usually got manual labour jobs
  • less than 3% of students attended technical schools
• criticisms of the tripartite system.

  -Many argue that 11+ was unfair

  -Labelling played a huge part as kids were told they were passing or failing so it affected their self confidence (self-fulfilling prophecy)

  -Grammar schools were overwhelmingly middle class, and secondary moderns were overwhelmingly working class so it still reproduced class inequality. (marxist, myth of meritocracy)

  -Only middle class primary schools prepared students for 11+ exam
• when was the comprehensive system introduced?

  1965, it abolished the 11+ exam and the tripartite system , whilst many students were sent to the comprehensive schools, 164 grammar schools still existed.
• Functionalists say that comprehensive schools were more meritocratic due to all students being placed under the same roof, and given the same opportunities. This promoted integration as all students from different backgrounds all went to the same school, regardless of academic ability.
• Marxists view the comprehensive system as reproducing inequality due to setting and streaming and labelling. The myth of meritocracy is also visible here as even though these schools perceived themselves to be meritocratic, they were not as classes were still divided by setting and streaming with the middle class being top set and working class being bottom set.

  Julienne ford (1969) found there was little mixing of social classes due to streaming and habitus of middle class pupils, leading students to socialise with those who were similar.
• what is marketisation?

  introducing market forces and competition into education, was introduced with the 1988 reform act. This also creates a parentocracy. This also reproduces inequality through league tables (cream skinning and silt shifting), formula funding, parental choice and myth of meritocracy.