The Sociological Approach of Education

• • What was the Butler Act 1944 and what did it introduce?
  • Individual- (Rab Butler)


  The Butler Act (1944)was a education related reform; Introduced 3 types of schools, Secondary Modern, Secondary Technical And Grammar increased the amount of students going to school past the age of 14, as they made education free past that age till (18)
• Education reform act


  1. Marketisation of education

  2. Parentocracy - giving control to parents regarding where children attend school
• Marketisation


  Application of market forces to the education system
• Parentocracy


  Giving control to parents regarding where the children attend school
• For marketization to work

  Parents must have a choice of where to send their children
• Parental choice


  Directly affects the school budget - every extra pupil means extra money for the school
• If a school is guaranteed the 500 local children will attend their school, there would be minimal competition between schools i.e. minimal competition for funding</b>
• The policy won't work unless parents have a choice over which school to send their pupils to
• Schools have been required to publish a prospectus which includes their examination and test results since 1988
• Did the Reform Act 1988 Really Improve the (QUALITY) of education??


  The education reform act introduced multiple factors to schools, OFSTED ~ This wouldn't improve the quality of education, as teachers may act differently when teaching or in treatment towards students while OFSTED is around and resume the poor quality of teaching when they leave.
• Results/League Tables/OFSTED


  More reasons why this may have not improved the quality of education links to the idea of cream-skimming/silt-shifting, the idea of cream skimming literally means ( to take the good students out) and silt shift (push the "dumb/failing kids" aside) this idea of silt shifting Labels students with failure and being "dumb", this then begins to apply the self fulfilling prophecy, students who were not doing the best are labelled as failures and live up to that label.
• Comprehensive schools

  Are local schools which do not select pupils on the basis of academic ability: they are mixed ability schools. In the 1960s, there were many criticisms of grammar schools and selective education, arguing that they were socially exclusive and divisive. The Labour government, after 1964, encouraged the development of these schools and through the 1970s they took the place of grammar schools and secondary modern schools in most areas of the country.