Effects of Marketisation Policies

What are some effects of marketisation policies?

• parentocracy

• myth of parentocracy

• reproduction of inequality

• A-C economy

How do marketisation policies create parentocracy?

• the publication of league tables and Ofsted reports allow parents to access all information to make a choice

• open enrolment means successful schools can recruit more students and parents can apply to any school of their choosing for their children

• schools compete to attract “consumers” (parents and pupils)

• power shifts away from the producers (schools) to the consumers (parents)

• the “product” of schools (the quality of education) increases due to competition

How do marketisation policies create a reproduction of inequality?

• the creation of inequalities between schools

• schools that achieve good results are more in demand, encouraging cream-skimming and silt-shifting

• cream-skimming is when ‘good’ schools are more selective by choosing their own “customers” and recruiting high achieving, mainly middle class students

• silt-shifting is when ‘good’ schools avoid taking in less able students, whose poorer results would damage the school’s league table position

• league tables produce unequal schools and therefore reproduce social class inequalities

What is the myth of parentocracy in relation to marketisation policies?

• increased parental choice and marketisation benefit only middle class parents

• middle class parents have the economic and cultural capital to help them to choose “good” schools for their children

• there are three main types of parents

What are the 3 main types of parent choosers?

• privileged-skilled choosers

• disconnected-local choosers

• semi-skilled choosers

What are privileged-skilled choosers?

• professional middle class parents

• use economic and cultural capital to gain educational capital for their children

• understand how school admissions systems work

• have the time to visit schools

• have the skills to research schools

• can afford to move their children around the education system

What are disconnected-local choosers?

• working class parents

• lack of economic and cultural capital

• struggle to understand school admissions procedures

• less aware of the choices open to them

• majorly restricted by distance and cost of travel

• funds are limited

What are semi-skilled choosers?

• mainly working class parents

• ambitious for their children

• lack cultural capital

• often have to rely on other people’s opinions of schools

What is the A-C economy?

• teachers use stereotypical notions of “ability” to stream pupils

• teachers are less likely to see working class and Black pupils as having ability

• working class and Black pupils are more likely to be placed in lower streams and entered for lower-tier GCSE exams, denying them knowledge

• league tables rank schools based on exam results

• schools compete to get better exam results

• schools focus their time, effort, and resources on pupils they see as having the potential to get five A-C grades

• schools strive to boost their league table position

• focus on middle class, white pupils

• working class and Black students are likely to be labelled as “hopeless cases” who are doomed to fail