marketisation

• marketisation


  process in which schools become more business-like

  introducing consumer choice and competition

  central theme of 1988 reform act
• Pros of marketisation

  • consumer choice - parentocracy
  • independence of schools
  • competition - raises school standards
• David - parentocracy 


  marketisation policies giving parents more choice
• marketisation policies

  • league tables
  • OFSTED
  • open enrolment
  • formula funding
  • academies
  • free schools
  • specialist schools
• open enrolment 


  where parents are allowed to select multiple schools to send their children too

  a02 - leads to more successful schools becoming oversubscribed, becoming more selective
• ball and whitty


  marketisation policies reproduce class inequalities
• Bartlett


  league tables encourage:

  1. cream skimming - good schools choose more able pupils
  2. silt-shifting - good schools able to avoid taking less able pupils

  schools cream-skim more able pupils and silt-shift less able pupils into failing schools
• gerwitz - parental choice


  parentocracy only benefits mc parents

  can use their cultural and educational capital to their advantage

  3 types of parents

  1. privileged-skilled choosers - professional mc parents
  2. disconnected- local choosers - wc parents, choices restricted due to lack of economic and cultural capital
  3. semi-skilled choosers - wc parents but more ambitious, frustrated at their inability to get children into good schools
• ball - myth of parentocracy 


  marketisation policies do not give all parents the same freedom to choose schools