Topic 6: educational policy and inequality

• educational policy before 1988- selection, tripartite system

  1944 education system influenced by meritocracy, 1944 brought in tripartite system allocating kids to different schools based on their ability in 11+ exam

  • Grammar school offered academic curriculum with an access to non-manual jobs for kids who passed 11+ exam (mc)
  • Secondary modern offered non-academic curriculum to pupils who failed the 11+ exam (wc)
  • 11+ reproduced class inequality by putting two classes in two different schools
  • It also reproduce gender inequality by requiring girls to gain higher marks than boys in the 11+
• Educational policy before 1988- selection, tripartite system

  Tripartite system also legitimised inequality through the ideology that ability is inborn

  It was thus argued ability could be measured early on in life through the 11+, however in reality children’s environment greatly affect their chance of success
• Educational policy before 1988- comprehensive school system


  Introduced from 1965 onwards, aim to make education system more meritocratic. It was left to local authority to decide to go comprehensive and not ordered so a grammar-secondary modern divide still exists
• Educational policy before 1988- theories of comprehensives

  Functionalists- see it as fulfilling essential function such as social integration and meritocratic selection for future work roles. They also argue comprehensive promotes social integration between kids of different social classes.

  • However Ford found wc/mc are separated due to streaming
  • Functionalists also see comprehensive system as meritocratic as it gives kids longer to prove ability than 11+ exam did
• Educational policy before 1988- theories of comprehensives

  Marxist argue education system serves the interest of capitalism by reproducing and legitimising class in a quality

  • They also argue that education system isn’t meritocratic due to the reproduction of class inequality by Settings/streaming which denies working class kids equal opportunities
• Monetisation


  Introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition created an education market by reducing state control over education and increasing competition between schools and parental choice of education

  • Monetisation has become a essential theme of government education policy since the 1988 education reformat introduced by the conservative government of Margaret Thatcher
  • Neoliberals and the new right favour marketisation
• Marketisation- parentocracy


  Policies to promote monetisation include:

  • Publication of league tables
  • OFSTED inspections
  • Tuition fees
  • Specialist schools in languages widens parental choice
  • Schools having to compete to attract pupils

  David describes marketised education as a parentocracy (rule by parents) supporters of marketisation argue an education market Schiff powers away from producers (teachers and schools) to consumers (parents) this encourages diversity amongst school and gives parents choice and raises standards
• Marketisation- reproduction of inequality

  Ball and whitty

  Argue, marketisation has increased inequality such as exam league tables and funding formula create reproduces class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools
• Marketisation- league tables and cream skimming

  Bartlett

  • Argues schools with good league tables will attract parents which will enforce cream skimming, good schools can be more selective, recruiting higher achieving mc pupils
  • Silt shifting good schools can avoid taking on less able pupils who are likely to get poor results and damage the school league position
  • For schools with worst league table positions, the opposite applies
• Marketisation- funding formula

  Schools are allocated funding based on how popular school is

  • Popular schools get more funds so can get better teachers and facilities allowing them to be selective with pupils,
  • Unpopular schools lose income and find it difficult to match the teacher skills and facilities of their more successful rivals
  • Unpopular schools will fail to attract pupils and therefore their funding is reduced
• Marketisation- parental choice

  Gerwitz- marketisation advantages mc parents whose economics/cultural capital lets them choose the best schools

  • Gerwitz identifies three different types of parents

  1. privileged, skilled choosers- mc parents who used economic/cultural capital to gain educational capital for their kids, that economic capital meant they could afford to pay travel costs so their kids could attend better schools
• marketisation- parental choice

  Gerwitz three types of parents

  2- Disconnected, local chooses- wc parents whose choices were restricted by lack of economic and cultural capital finding it difficult to understand schools admissions so they were less able to manipulate the system to their advantage, they placed most importance in safety and quality of facilities

  3- semi skilled chooses- mainly wc, they were ambitious for their kids but liked cultural/economic capital and didn’t understand education market
• Marketisation- the myth of parentocracy

  Not only does marketisation reproduce inequality, it also legitimises it by concealing its true causes and justifying its existence

  • Ball argues that parentocracy is a myth
  • it may appear that all parents have the same freedom to choose which school with to send their children to
  • However, in reality Gerwitz shows, mc parents are better able to take advantage of the choices available to them
  • by distinguishing the fact that schooling continues to reproduce class inequality in this way the myth of parentocracy makes inequality in education appear fair
• Marketisation- new labour inequity

  Will marketisation policies have tended to increase inequality, the new labour government of 1997 to 2010 also introduced a number of policies aimed at reducing it including:

  • Designating some deprived areas as education action zones and providing them with additional resources
  • Aim higher program to raise aspirations of groups who are represented in higher education
  • Increased funding for state education
  • Education maintenance allowance, payments to students from low income backgrounds to encourage them to stay on after 16 to gain better qualifications
• Marketisation- new labour and inequality

  Critics such as Benn see a contradiction between labours policies to tackle inequality and it’s commitment to marketisation

  • Something she calls the new labour paradox, e.g despite introducing educational maintenance allowances to encourage the poor students to stay in education, labour also introduce tuition fees for higher education that may deter them from going to uni
• Conservative government policies from 2010


  Conservative lead coalition government (2010-2015) and the conservative government from 2015 the move away from the education system based largely on comprehensive schools

  • Introduced more competition with free schools and academies
• Conservative government policies from 2010- Academies


  Schools encourage to leave local authority and become academies

  • Funding was taken from authorities budget and given directly to academies, they were also given control over their curriculum
  • 20 17/68% of all secondary schools had to Academy, some are run by private educational businesses and funded directly by the state
  • Labours original city Academy targeted disadvantaged schools and areas however the coalition government allowed any school to become an Academy, removing the focus on reducing inequality
• Conservative government policies from 2010- free schools


  Funded by the state, set up and run by parents, teachers, faiths or businesses

  • Supporters argue, they take control away from state and give it to parents
  • It gives people the opportunity to create a new school if they’re unhappy with the state of schools in local area
  • However, they’re unlikely to take on disadvantage groups for example in 2011 only 6.4% of pupils at Bristol free school were eligible for free school meals, compared with 22.5% of peoples across the city as a whole
• Conservative government policies from 2010- fragmented centralisation

  Promoting academies and free schools has led to

  • Fragmentation, the comprehensive system is being replaced by patchwork of diverse provision, involving private providers leading to greater inequality in opportunities
  • Centralisation of control, central government has the power to allow or require schools to be academies or to set up free schools. These schools are funded directly by central government. These schools are funded directly by central government. Their rapid growth has reduced role of local authorities in ed
• Conservative government policies from 2010- policies to reduce inequality

  While the Conservative lead coalition marketisation policies are said to have increased inequality, they also introduce policies aimed at reducing it including

  • Free school meals-for all kids in reception, year one and year two
  • Pupil premium- money school receipt for each people from a disadvantage background
  • However, OFSTED found that people premium isn’t often spent on who it’s meant to help
  • Critics argue, cutting start and the educational maintenance allowances has reduced opportunities for working class pupils
• Privatisation of education-

  Transfer of schools into private companies, private sector businesses and build finance schools
• Privatisation of education- blurring the public/private boundaries

  Senior offices in the public sector e.g. local authorities/head teachers leave to set up work for private sector education businesses they then bid for contracts to provide services for schools and local authorities

  • Two companies set up in this way, hold 4/5 national contracts for school inspection services
  • Pollack argues this flow of personnel allows companies to buy inside a knowledge to help win contracts, as well as sidestepping local authority democracy
• The privatisation of education- privatisation and globalisation of educational policy


  Private companies in the education services industry are foreign owned, edexcel is owned by the USA,

  • Pearson GCSE exam answers are marked in Sydney
  • Buckingham and scanlon argue the U.K.’s 4 leading educational software companies are all owned by global manufacturers, contracts for educational services in the UK are sold on by the original company to others such as banks and investment funds
  • In a global world, these are often bought by overseas companies
• Privatisation of education: cola-isation schools


  private sector going into education in directly through vending machines on school premises or brand locally through displays of logo and sponsorships this is called cola-isation.

  • benefits to school/pupils through this private sector involvement is limited,
  • a cadburrys sports equipment promotion was scrapped after it was revealed peoples had to eat 5440 bars to qualify for a set of volleyball posts
• Privatisation of education- education as a commodity 


  privatisation is becoming a key factor in shaping educational policy

  • Education is being turned into a private commodity to be bought and sold in an educational market
  • Privatisation means that the state is losing its role as a provider for educational services
  • Marxist, such as Hall sees Conservative government policies as part of the long march of neo liberal revolution, he sees academies as an example of handing over public services to private capitalist such as educational businesses
• Privatisation of education- policies on gender

  in 19th century women were excluded from education,

  • in the 11+ exam girls had to get a higher grade than boys in order to get into grammar schools.
  • since 1970 policies such as gist reduced gender differences in achievement
• Privatisation of education- policies on ethnicity

  Assimilation 60s/70s tried to move ethnic pupils into British culture

  • Multicultural education policies in 1980s aimed to raise ethnic kids achievement by valuing all pupils culture in the curriculum but this was heavily criticised for not being the reason for failure
  • Inclusion amending race relations act to place illegal duty and schools to promote racial equality,
  • help for voluntary schools in black communities