The new right perspective in education

Define free market

Having an economic system with no government control

Define marketisation

The marketisation of education refers to an educational policy trend pushed by the New Right which encouraged schools to compete against one another.

The new right main belief

The state cannot meet peoples needs and they are best left to meet their own needs through free market

New Right and Functionalist similarites

• Some people are naturally more talented than others

• Favour an education system that runs on meritocratic principles of open competition and that it serves the needs of the economy by preparing the young

• Education should socialise pupils into shared values such as competition .

Voucher system

Chubb and Moe - Each family gets a voucher per child. Schools are then funded by these vouchers so therefore rely on the parents choice, giving more fair opportunities for working class students.

The New Rights 2 roles for the state

1. Publish official stats like Ofsted reports - to help parents pick schools

2. The ensure schools transmit a shared culture.

Evaluation The New Right

• Gewirtz and Ball argue that competition between schools benefit the middle class as they can use their cultural and economic capital to attend the best schools

• The New Right contradiction - they support parental choice but also the state imposing a national curriculum on all schools

• Marxists argue the state does not impose a national curriculum but impose the culture on the minority, dominate class