A Level Sociology(Education) - Marketisation

What is Marketisation?

The process of introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between suppliers into areas run by the state, such as education.

What are the two things meant by the 'education market' that marketisation has created?

- Reducing state control over education.

-Increasing competition between both schools and parental choice of schools.

When was the education reform act published ?

1988.

Who introduced the 1988 Education Reform act and what was the main theme of this?

- The Conservative Government of Margaret Thatcher

- The main theme was Marketisation.

When was the New Labour Government in power and who was leading the party?

1997

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown

What theme did the New Labour Government take?

They followed similar marketisation policies but placed a greater emphasis on standards, diversity and choice.

How did the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government take marketisation even further?

They introduced academies and free schools.

What process do Neoliberals and New right favour?

They favour Marketisation.

What do Neoliberals and New right argue about marketisation?

Marketisation means that schools attract customers(parents) by competing with each other in the market.

Schools that provide customers with what they want, such as success in exams, will thrive and they won't 'go out of business'.

What is the first policy that promotes marketisation?

- Publication of league tables and Ofsted inspection reports that rank each school according to its exam performance, parents can choose the right school

What is the second policy that promotes marketisation?

- Business sponsorships of schools.

What is the third policy that promotes marketisation?

Open enrolment, allowing successful school to recruit more pupils.

What is the fourth policy that promotes marketisation?

Specialist schools, specialising in IT, language etc widen parental choice.

What is the fifth policy that promotes marketisation?

Schools being allowed to local authority control e.g to become academies.

What is the sixth policy that promotes marketisation?

Schools having to compete to attract.

What is the seventh policy that promotes marketisation?

- Introduction of tuition fees for higher education.

How did Miriam David described marketisation education as?

Parentocracy( rule by parents), In an education market, power shifts away from producers (teachers and schools) to the consumers (parents).

What effect does Parentocracy have on schools?

This encourages diversity amongst schools, gives parents more choice and raise standards.

What do critics state about marketisation?

Marketisation increased inequalities.

What did Ball and Whitty note about marketisation policies?

Marketisation policies such as exam league tables and funding formulas reproduce class inequalities by creating inequalities between schools.

What did Will Bartlett state about the effects of good league tables produced form results?

It encourages Cream-Skimming and silk-shifting.

Define cream skimming

'Good' schools can be more selective, choose their own customers and recruits high achieving,mainly middle class pupils. As a result, these pupils gain an advantage

Define silt shifting

'Good' schools can avoid taking less able pupils who are likely to get poor results and damage the schools league board position

What happens to schools with poor league table positions?

They cannot afford to be selective and have to take less able students, mainly working class so their results are poorer and they remain unattractive to middle class parents.

How do popular schools benefit from funding formula?

They get more funds so they can afford better facilities and better qualified teachers therefore allowing them to be selective of high ability students.

How do unpopular schools benefit from funding formula?

They don't. They lose income and find it difficult to find good teachers or create adequate facilities compared to other high-ranking schools making they don't get adequate results to invite students.

What did Gerwitz study of 14 London schools find?

Differences in parents' economic and cultural capital leads to class differences in how far they can exercise choice of secondary schools. She identifies three main types of parents:

- Privileged skilled choosers.

- Disconnected local choosers.

- Semi-skilled choosers.

What are privileged skilled choosers?

-Mainly professional middle class parents that use their economic and cultural capital to gain educational capital for their children and this knowledge allowed them to take full advantage of choices open to them.

-They knew how the admissions system worked and had time to look around schools and the skills to comparatively research schools.

-The were able to move their children around the education system, E.G paying for travel costs to have their children go to a better school.out of the area.

What are disconnected-local choosers?

Working-class parents whose choices were restricted by their lack of economic and cultural capital.

Found it difficult to understand school admissions and procedures.

Less aware of options open to them so less able to manipulate the systems for their own advantage.

Attached more importance to quality of facilities rather than league table positions

Distance and cost and travel were main restrictions on their choice of schools.

What are Semi-skilled choosers?

- Mainly working-class but were ambitious for their children

- They lacked cultural capital and found it difficult to make sense if the education market

- They had to rely on other people' opinions about the schools, this frustrated them as they were in able to get their children into the schools that they wanted.

What does Ball state about the Myth of Parentocracy?

Not all parents have the freedom to choose which school to choose where to send their children, the myth of Parentocracy makes inequality in education appear fair and inevitable.

What is the first policy that New labour Governments of 1997-2010 introduced to try to decrease marketisation?

- The Aim higher programme to raise aspirations of group who are under-represented in higher education.

What is the second policy that New labour Governments of 1997-2010 introduced to try to decrease marketisation?

-Designating some deprived areas as Education Action Zones and providing them with additional resources.

What is the third policy that New labour Governments of 1997-2010 introduced to try to decrease marketisation?

-Education Maintenance Allowances (EMA): payments to students from low income backgrounds to encourage them to stay on after 16 to gain better qualification.

What is the fourth policy that New labour Governments of 1997-2010 introduced to try to decrease marketisation?

- Introduction of the National Literacy Strategy, literacy and numeracy hours, and reducing primary school class sizes - these policies are a great advantage to disadvantaged groups so help to reduce inequality.

What is the fifth policy that New labour Governments of 1997-2010 introduced to try to decrease marketisation?

- City Academies were created to give a fresh start to struggling inner-city schools with mainly working class populations.

What is the sixth policy that New labour Governments of 1997-2010 introduced to try to decrease marketisation?

- Increased funding for state education.

What does Melissa Benn refer to as the 'New Labour Paradox'?

Labour's policies to tackle inequality and its commitment to marketisation.

How did Labour counter-act the effect of EMAs?

Labour introduced higher tuition fees that may deter students from gaining a higher education despite the fact that EMA encouraged children to stay in higher education.

What did the study of international patterns of educational inequality by the Institute of public policy(2012) find about competition orientated education?

Competitions in schools in Britain produce more segregation between children if different backgrounds.

What is New Vocationalism?

A range of education schemes introduced to deal with the skills crisis which caused youth unemployment.

What was the YTS?

A one year training scheme combined work experience with education for unemployed school leavers.

What was the General National Vocational Qualification?

These were taught in schools as an alternative to academic courses.

What did the General National Vocational Qualification aim to do?

They aimed to prepare students for work by teaching job specific skills in the class and placement by students in the workplace for work experience.

What was announced in 2013, regarding new vocationalism?

They were to be dropped and no

longer included in league tables.

What does Finn argue about new vocationalism?

It was the lack of jobs rather than inadequate skills that was the real cause of youth unemployment.

According to Finn, what was the hidden function of the YTS?

To produce a pool of low skilled cheap labour.

How did new vocationalism legitimate class inequality?

As middle-class youths were educated to university standards whilst working class youths were merely trained for manual.

What was the private finance initiative catered by Labour?

Involved private contractors and the state jointly funding the building of new schools and colleges.

What is now in the private sector?

Exam Boards and State testing and some Ofsted inspections.