AQA A-Level Sociology - Education - Educational Policies

Selection Policies - Tripartite System (1944 Education Act)

Enforced under **Churchill**

Based on the idea of meritocracy, achieved status through own efforts and abilities (not ascribed eg. social class)

Children were tested through 11+ exams

Tripartite System:

* ==**Grammar Schools (academic)**==
* ==**Secondary Moderns (non-academic)**==
* ==**Technical Schools (skill-based)**==

Evaluation:

* More of a bipartite system (technical schools only existed in particular areas)
* Reproduced gender inequality - Girls had to gain higher marks
* Reproduced class inequality - channelling two social classes into different schools

Selection Policies - Comprehensivisation (1965 onwards)

Introduced by **PM Harold Wilson (Labour).**

* ==**11+ abolished (mostly)**==
* Grammars were replaced with comprehensive secondaries
* School catchment areas were introduced rather than selection ==**(Postcode Lottery)**==

However, LEAs (local education authorities) had the choice to not go along with this, and maintain grammar schools.

Selection Policies - Selection Today

==**Selection by Ability:**==

* Assessed by 11+ exam
* Another form is the use of streaming and setting pupils according to ability

==**Selection by Aptitude:**==

* Specialist schools, are allowed to select certain students based on aptitude for a subject (sports, performing arts, etc.)

==**Selection by Faith:**==

* Based on faith and religion, selection of students based on their beliefs.

Marketisation Policies - 1988 Education Reform Act

Introduced by **PM Thatcher (New Right)**

Introduced Market Forces:

* ==**Competition (league tables)**==
* ==**Consumer choice**==
* ==**Parentocracy**==
* ==**2010 further steps such as academies and free schools**==
* ==**Favoured by New Right as make schools raise standards to attract 'customers' in competition**==

Features of Marketisation:

* Publication of exam results and Ofsted results
* Open enrollment - no catchment
* Funding per pupil (same for all)
* Tuition fees for higher education
* Parents can set up free school

Marketisation Policies - Parentocracy (theory)

**David (1993):**

* Marketised education is a ==parentocracy.==
* Power is shifted away from teachers and schools and moves to the consumers (parents).
* Argues marketised education encourages diversity among schools and parental choice raised standards of education.

Marketisation Policies - Criticisms of Marketisation (theory)

**Ball and Whitty (1994, 1998)**

Marketisation has many criticisms, including the creation and reproduction of class inequality.

==**League Tables:**==

* High achieving schools can be more selective
* Lower position schools are unable to be selective
* ==**Cream-skimming**== (selecting best students) and ==**silt-shifting**== (low achieving students go to less successful schools, but still contribute to society i.e going into manual labour)

==**Funding Formula:**==

* Better schools: more funding and better teachers and facilities
* Unpopular schools: lose income; difficult to match schools.

Marketisation Policies - Parental Choices (theory)

**Gerwitz (1995)**

Middle-class parents are advantaged by choice (linked to their economic and cultural capital)

* ==**Privileged-skilled choosers**== (professional middle-class - possess cultural capital)
* ==**Disconnected local choosers**== (working-class - lack of cultural capital)
* ==**Semi-skilled choosers**== (ambitious working-class - limited cultural capital)

Privatisation Policies - Globalisation of Education Policy

Many private companies in education industry are foreign-owned. Edexcel owned by US educational publishing and testing giant Pearson.

**Buckingham and Scanlon (2005)** - UK's 4 leading educational software companies are all owned by global multinationals.

* ==Disney (US)==
* ==Mattel (US)==
* ==Hambro (US)==
* ==Vivendi (France)==

Many contracts for services in UK are sold on by original company to others such as banks and investment funds.

Privatisation Policies - Globalisation in Education

**PISA (Programme of International Student Assessment)**

International testing of students, used to compare student attainment across the world.

* Increase of ==**global competition**==
* Doesn’t accurately show the reasons why some countries outperform in school.
* For example, ==**hagwons**== in Korea (after-school schools) help explain the reason for a lot of success in education in Korea - yet the ==**PISAs**== don’t show this.

\
**Different types of schools**

* Increase of home-education (40% since 2018).
* Previous census data shows 1,170 multi-academy trust schools.

Privatisation Policies - Branding within Schools (Concept + Theories)

The Cola-isation of Schools:

* Private sector is penetrating education indirectly by vending machines on school premises and the development of brand loyalty.
* **Molnar (2005)** - Schools are targeted by private companies because 'schools by their nature carry enormous goodwill and can thus confer legitimacy on anything associated with them.'
In other words, they are a kind of product endorsement.

However,
**Ball** - Benefits are very limited. For example, a ==**Cadbury's sports equipment promotion**== was scrapped after it was revealed that pupils would have to eat \~5,440 chocolate bars just to qualify for a set of volleyball posts.

Policies on Social Factors - Gender

**Tripartite system (~1944):**

* Girls disadvantaged (had to achieve higher scores on tests for selection)

**Current system:**

* Schemes such as ==**GIST and WISE**== made in order to eliminate gender differences within school and its subjects.

Policies on Social Factors - Ethnicity

==**Assimilation (1960-70):**==

* Focus on BAME students (especially those English not first language) by assimilating them into mainstream British culture.
* EVAL: A lot of BAME students do speak English, and it is rather racism and/or poverty that hinders them.

==**Multiculturel Education (MCE) (1980-90):**==

* Valuing all cultures within school curriculum - therefore raising BAME self-esteem.
* EVAL: Critical race theorists would say that it is mere tokenism - picks out stereotypes of minority cultures for 'inclusion' - fails to tackle institutional racism.