Education Paper 1

• What are educational policies?

  • sets of plans or laws put in place by the government to address educational problems, e.g. underachievement
• What was the 1944 Butler Education Act?

  • aimed to make secondary education more equal
  • established free secondary education for all pupils
• The tripartite system

  • Grammar schools - highly academic focus for those passing the 11+ test
  • Secondary modern schools - practical based education for those failing the 11+ test
  • Technical schools - specialised practical schools
• Was the tripartite system meritocratic?

  • reproduces class inequality as the middle class went to Grammar schools and earned the best jobs, whilst the working class ended up going to the secondary modern schools and getting manual jobs
  • girls had to get a higher mark to pass
  • stated that intelligence was innate, suggesting that the middle class passed due to being smart, rather than wealth and status
• Evaluation of the tripartite system

  • difficult to measure intelligence as the 11+ only measured certain types
  • 11 is too early to decide a child's future
  • students failing may have been labelled a failure and led to a self fulfilling prophecy
• What are comprehensive schools

  • schools could not select pupils based on ability, scrapping the 11+ exam
• Evaluation of the comprehensive system

  • many comprehensives streamed in ability groups, and middle class children were placed in higher streams than working class pupils
  • legitimised inequality through the myth of meritocracy, as all students went to the same school so it appeared they all had equal opportunities
• What is marketisation

  • making something that is run by the government operate as if it was a business
  • e.g. making it subject to market forces of 'competition' and 'consumer choice'
• When were marketisation policies first introduced?

  • By Thatcher in 1988 Education Reform Act
• Marketisation policies (Conservative)

  • Open Enrolment - parents can send children to any school if they have the space
  • Formula Funding - each student is worth a set amount of money, meaning schools compete for students and standards increase
  • National Curriculum - government stipulated what was taught to ensure consistency in teaching
  • Exams - focuses efforts on achieving key targets
  • League Tables and OFSTED - compare performances and make schools accountable and drive up standards
• Result/evaluation off marketisation policies

  • oversubscription of the best schools means students in the catchment area are more likely to get a place, legitimising class inequality as only middle class families tend to afford houses in the area
  • Gerwirtz conducted research and suggested that parentocracy only exists for the middle class and is not a possibility for the working class due to their lack of cultural and economic capital
• What are equal opportunities policies?

  • more left wing policies put in place to reduce class inequalities within education
  • Namely by the New Labour government
• Equal Opportunities Policies (New Labour)

  • Sure Start - free nursery education in deprived areas, since discontinued; however, woking parents are entitled 15-30 hours free childcare
  • Academies - new schools set up to replace failing comprehensives to ensure no children were educated in an ineffective school
  • Educational Maintenance Allowance - provided low-income families with £30 a week for educational equipment to reduce dropout rates
  • Excellence in Cities - extra resources to deprived city schools to improve results
  • Expansion of higher education
  • Free School Meals - reduce inequality
• Evaluation of equal opportunities policies

  • Francis and Hutchings found academies did not improve standard for 2 / 3 of disadvantaged students
  • The middle classes still got into the best schools
  • Many contradictory policies that increase inequality, e.g. tuition fees
• Increase standards Policies 


  Coalition

  • Pupil Premium - helps disadvantaged students achieve by encouraging better schools to take them and gives schools more funds to improve
  • Linear A Levels - drives up standards and allows competition in global market

  New Labour

  • Value added - drives up standards by encouraging competition
  • Tuition fees - improves standards at university

  Conservative

  • Formula Funding - have to increase standards to gain pupils, and funding
  • League tables and OFSTED - schools held accountable so drives up standards
• What is privatisation

  • Where external private businesses deliver services to education
  • School services - e.g. ICT, branding, school meals = can involve international corporations e.g. Adobe
  • Examining bodies - compete for school's business by establishing the 'best' course, e.g Pearsons
  • School management - 86% schools had academised by 2021 meaning businesses make a profit and schools have flexibility
  • Buildings - private companies build and maintain schools they can rent to the government
• Evaluation of privatisation

  • Companies have experience in running successful schools
  • Companies are unlikely to reinvest into schools if profit is the main aim
  • Variety of companies running schools increases parentocracy, increasing standards
  • Companies can fail
  • Companies may take on failing schools and increase standards
  • Ball said there may be a cola - isation of education, e.g influence pupils to purchase products (vending machines)
  • Cherry-pick schools
  • May influence curriculum, e.g. teach more science and maths as it is important in employment and will drive up international standards
• How has globalisation affected educational policies?

  • marketisation and privatisation
  • international comparisons
• Marketisation/Privatisation and globalisation

  • Hancock = UK economy made £ 18 billion in 2012 by exporting education services and products to countries like China
  • Policies have allowed businesses to make more money from expanding the global education market - school management, school services, formula funding (schools must increase standards to attract = better in international comparisons), etc.
• What is Mcdonaldisation?

  • used by Ritzer
  • 
    
  • culture adopts the characteristics of a fast food restaurant
  • Mcdonaldization attempts to reduce education to a product that can be packaged, marketed and sold
  • For example:

  1. Efficiency - pupils part of assembly line, treated the same
  2. Predictability - expected to display same skills at same time, curriculum is same for all
  3. Calculability - constant testing to ensure 'product' is good enough
  4. Control - schools are run by fear
• International Comparisons

  • 3 main sources of statistics comparing students' abilities with other countries

  1. PISA - student assessment
  2. TIMSS - maths and science
  3. PIRLS - literacy
• How are international comparisons ranking used:

  • see if existing policies work
  • see what areas need to be improved when creating policies
  • 'cherry - pick' policies from best performing countries, e.g. Michael Gove's proposal to extend the school day to mirror longer hours in East Asian countries like South Korea and Singapore
• Policies created due to international comparisons

  1. National Literacy and Numeracy - daily hour of maths and English to improve rankings on international league tables
  2. Slimming down the curriculum - removal of subjects so it is in line with core content offered in other countries that perform better in PISA rankings
  3. Tougher entry requirements for teachers - trainees had to pass much harder teats in English, maths, ICT - based on a Finnish policy who out-performed the UK for years
  4. Master Teachers - proposed by Labour, based on a policy in Singapore who have regularly been in top 5 in PISA
• Evaluation of international comparisons

  • cultured from which policies are 'cherry - picked' differ greatly from British culture, ad what works for one, may not work for another, e.f. South Korea has high PISA rating but high suicide rate amongst school-aged children due to academic pressure
  • Alexander states it leads to a "PISA panic" over the state of British education and searches for 'miracle cures'
• PREVENT - globalisation on education

  • schools teach the fundamental British values - respect and tolerance, democracy, rule of law and individual liberty - to reduce radicalisation
  • Reinforces key values in society
  • Helps prevent radicalisation and the promotion of extremist views that has occurred in the era of globalisation
• Functionalist perspective on education

  1. Durkheim
  2. Parsons
  3. Davis and Moore
• Durkheim

  1. Social Solidarity - societies need to feel a sense of unity otherwise co-operation will be impossible and society will be in anarchy. Schools transmit the value consensus giving people a sense of social identity, creating social solidarity
  2. Specialist skills - successful economies need different specialists with skills and knowledge to do different jobs. Education teaches specialist skills that parents cannot. Without a skilled labour force, the economy would struggle, demonstrating the interdependent nature of education and the economy.
• Evaluation of Durkheim

  1. Social solidarity - Marxists say only the values of the ruling class are transmitted
  2. Specialist skills - often what people learn in schools has little direct relation to the jobs they do. Marxists say schools prepare working class for mundane, low paid jobs (B owes and Gintis)
• Parsons

  • education is a bridge between the family and real life
  • family is based on particularistic values and ascribed status
  • Education and real world is based on universalistic values and achieved status
  • School and society are a meritocracy, and thus pupils are socialised into a meritocracy before they join the 'real world'
• Evaluation of Parsons

  • Society isn't truly based on universalistic values, as most elite jobs are influenced by ascribed status, and wealth is inherited
  • 80 % of jobs are earned through nepotism
• Davis and Moore

  • 'sifting and sorting' workers into the right jobs
  • The smartest and talented need the best and most important jobs, and the least capable need less important jobs.
  • this is based on academic achievement in school
  • Financial inequality is necessary to attract people to the difficult jibs - a by- product of a meritocracy
  • Everyone has equality of opportunity for best jobs and salary
• Evaluation of Davis and Moore

  • meritocracy is a myth
  • The best jobs are taken by rich, white men
• New Right perspective of education

  • state control has resulted in inefficiency, a weak economy, and lack of personal responsibility.
  • culture of dependency has developed where people heavily rely on the government to solve their problems.​
  • the answer to a failing education system is creating an ‘education market' - Marketisation
• Chubb and Moe (New Right)

  • conducted research on around 1000 state and private schools in the US
  • students from poorer backgrounds do 5 % better in private schools than in state schools.​
  • The control of schools would be put in the hands of parents, allowing them to shape the school to meet their local needs - parentocracy
  • Chubb and Moe also believe that rising standards are essential as a result of globalisation. ​
• Evaluation of New Right

  • Gewirtz says parentocracy only benefits middle class parents
  • real cause of low educational standards is social inequality
• Marxist perspective on education

  1. Althusser
  2. Bordieu
  3. Bowles and Gintis
• Althusser

  • Ruling class uses 'the state' to control the working class: ISA - controls ideas or beliefs through socialisation techniques - and RSA - controls bodies through force.
  • Education is main ISA in western society
  • creates an efficient and obedient work force by giving them the necessary practical skills and socialising pupils into the dominant ideology
  • students prepare for a life of exploitative work and learn capitalism is fair
• Evaluation of Althusser

  • cannot explain how many working class individuals are in higher education and have high paid jobs
  • suggests that ISA is not as powerful, if it even exists, in contemporary society
• Bordieu

  • ruling class impose their culture on the education system, so what counts as 'knowledge' comes from the culture of the dominant class
  • middle and upper class have access to this culture and have a built-in advantage due to their cultural capital
  • this reproduces class inequality as the working class have less cultural capital
  • it legitimises class inequality as the dominant ideology says that school is meritocratic
• Evaluation of Bordieu

  • how/why do so many working class individuals get to be successful in education
  • too deterministic