social policy

• functionalists argue that comprehensives promote social integration by brining children of different social classes together in one school
• Marxists argue that comprehensives are not meritocratic as they reproduce class inequality through streaming and labelling, denying WC children equal opportunity
• the comprehensive system was introduced by the labour government to overcome the class divide of the tripartite system and make education more meritocratic
• comprehensive schools were designed to be non-selective and mixed ability with no streaming or setting
• pros of tripartite system

  • different ability students get the support needed for their ability
• the 1944 education act brought in the tripartite system where a three stage education was created; grammar schools, technical schools and secondary modern schools
• marketisation has created an 'education market' by reducing direct state control over education and increasing both competition between schools and parental choice of school
• marketisation is the process of introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition into the education system
• neoliberals and the new right favour marketisation, arguing that marketisation means schools have to attract customers by competing with each other
• policies to promote marketisation include publishing league tables, open enrolment, specialist schools, free schools and formula funding
• supporters of marketisation argue that, in an education market, power shifts away from the producers (teachers/schools) to the consumers (parents), encouraging diversity, choice and higher standards
• Ball and Whitty argue that marketisation policies such as league tables and the funding formula reproduces class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools
• Bartlett notes that publishing league tables encourages cream-skimming and silt-shifting
• cream-skimming is where 'good' schools can be more selective, choosing high achieving, MC pupils who, as a result, gain an advantage
• silt-shifting is where 'good' schools can avoid taking less able pupils who will likely damage the school's league table position
• governments use a funding formula to determine how much money should be allocated to each school
• the funding formula has caused popular schools to be able to afford better-qualified teachers and better facilities (attracting more able and ambitious applicants) and less popular schools to struggle to match the teacher skills and facilities of their rivals
• Gewirtz studies 14 London secondary schools and found that the differences in parents' economic and cultural capital led to class differences in how far they can exercise choice of secondary school.
• Gewirtz identifies 3 main types of parents; privileged-skilled choosers, disconnected-local choosers and semi-skilled choosers
• privileged-skilled choosers;

  • professional MC parents
  • prosperous, confident and well-educated
  • able to take full advantage of choices open to them
  • knew how school admissions system worked
  • had time to visit schools
  • could afford to move children to attend better schools out of their area
• disconnected-local choosers

  • WC parents who lacked economic and cultural capital
  • struggled to understand school admission procedures
  • less aware of choices open to them
  • less able to manipulate the system to their own advantage
  • cost of travel were a major restriction
• semi-skilled choosers

  • mainly WC parents
  • were ambitious for their children
  • lacked cultural capital
  • found it difficult to make sense of the education market
  • often were frustrated at their inability to get children into the schools they wanted
• parentocracy; the education is based on parents having a free choice of school
• Ball argues that parentocracy is a myth; it makes it appear that all parents have the same freedom to choose which school to send their children to
• Miriam David (1993) described marketised education as a 'parentocracy'
• league tables allow cream-skimming and silt-shifting to take place because parents are attracted to schools with good league table rankings, leading to some schools being able to be more selective as they have more applicants than those with less, who must accept all to survive