Educational policies

• New right


  A political ideology, less of a sociological perspective
• New right's views on education

  • Education should promote social solidarity through the teaching of our shared heritage
  • Education should promote Christian values
  • Education should teach specialist skills
• Market principles


  Choice and competition
• Benefits of applying market principles to education

  Maintains and improves standards
• Voucher system


  Parents choose their child's school, schools can charge more if successful
• Marketization of education

  1. Introducing national curriculum

  2. Standardized testing

  3. Formula funding

  4. Open enrollment
• Aims of marketization


  • Increase competition between schools
  • Increase parental choice
• Ofsted


  Compiles inspection reports on schools to give parents informed choice
• League tables


  Rank schools on student performance in standardized tests
• Standardized testing


  Occurs throughout a student's school career
• Education markets


  From early years to higher education, providers are monitored, assessed and ranked
• New right approaches have led to increased privatization of education
• New right policies have been criticized for covert selection of students and disadvantaging those with less cultural and social capital
• Types of choosers in education markets

  • Skilled (middle class)
  • Semi-skilled (more knowledgeable working class)
  • Disconnected local (working class)
• Marketization of education


  The application of market principles to the education system
• Marketization of education


  • Promoting choice
  • Promoting competition
• Marketization of education has been dominant in the UK for the past 30 years
• Promoting choice in education

  Increasing the different types of providers that students can attend
• Promoting competition between providers


  Schools and colleges competing for students according to principles of marketization
• Application of market principles to education


  Centered upon the student as a consumer of goods and meeting their needs
• How marketization has been achieved

  1. Consensus in education by consecutive governments that marketization is desirable

  2. Education reform act 1988 creating open enrollment and national curriculum

  3. Introduction of formula funding for schools

  4. Introduction of league tables and Ofsted

  5. Introduction of city academies in 2000

  6. Introduction of specialist schools and faith schools

  7. Introduction of tuition fees for universities in 1998

  8. Academization of secondary schools and introduction of free schools

  9. Introduction of pupil premium and progress 8 measurement
• Impacts of marketization


  • Wider choice of schools available
  • More private investment into education provision
  • Increase in university attendance, including from overseas
  • Increase in educational standards with more GCSE and A-level passes
• Criticisms of marketization include the myth of increased parental choice, teaching to the test, educational triage, and off-rolling of low-ability students
• Privatization


  The transfer of assets and resources from state control to the private sector
• Privatization has been a feature of the neoliberal economic policies of consecutive governments in the UK for the past 40 years
• Privatization impacts not only education but also healthcare, prisons, local councils, rail networks and many other aspects of society
• Privatization of education


  Different from private or independent schools that raise funds through charging fees
• Privatization of the education system

  1. Schools given autonomy from local education authority control

  2. Adoption of business practices like setting performance targets

  3. Linking teacher pay to performance

  4. Marketing of schools in a competitive education market

  5. Schools aiming to be efficient and profitable
• Academization


  Schools opting out of local education authority control to assume control over their financial running and adopt more efficient business practices
• Privatization of the education system

  1. Outsourcing of many aspects of education to external, often private providers

  2. Management of schools by academy trusts

  3. Growth of educational consultants

  4. Privately run examination services

  5. Development of educational brands
• Building new schools is an example of privatization of education, with many new schools being built and designed not by local councils but by privately funded initiatives
• Multi-academy trusts


  • Evidence of privatization of education
  • 738 operating at least 5 schools in 2018
  • Over 150 operating more than 5 schools
  • 13 operating more than 26 schools
  • Average income of 4 million pounds per year for a secondary school
• Exam boards


  • Pearson is the leading exam board in the UK, supplying over 70 countries worldwide with educational materials and assessments
• Critics suggest privatization of education could lead to interference in the curriculum by large companies, increased focus on skills and knowledge for employment rather than a holistic view of education, and the colonization of education with big companies advertising to students
• Privatization could lead to the pursuit of profitability over progress, with valuable but costly courses being cut, and the hiring of unqualified and untrained teachers
• However, the majority of academies have conformed to the national curriculum and standardized assessments
• Vocational education


  Education that is specifically tailored towards students going straight into employment
• Academic education


  Education that sets students up for going on to university
• Purpose of vocational education


  • Provide students with the skills and knowledge they require for the workplace
  • Fulfill the teaching of specialist skills as outlined by Durkheim
• Human capital


  A highly skilled workforce developed through education