Educational policies

purpose of educational policies

• Equal opportunities  

• Control of education  

• Selection and choice 

• Marketisation and privation  

schooling made compulsory from 5-13 

1880

tripartite system

1944

comprehensive schooling

1965

conservative government’s education reform act

1988

industrial revolution

• No mass education system in the UK, was not yet needed 

• Education available to minority, through fee paying schools or the church and charities  

• Indistrialisation requires an educated workforce  

• State made education compulsory in 180 

what is the tripartite system

• Students sit 11+ exam  

• Pass = grammar school 

• Fail = technical skills/  

• Secondary modern schools 

strengths of the tripartite system

• Intended to be a fair system based on meritocracy – pupils could earn a place at a grammar school by working hard 

• Grammar schools did improve chances for a few working-class children 

weaknesses of the tripartite system

• Reproduced class inequality in education --> social classews channelled into different schools with unequal opportunities, girls had to obtain higher pass marks than boys reproducing gender inequality  

• Legitimated class inequality in education --> through the idea that the ability is inborn, but you could be taught the test  

what is comprehensive schooling

• Aimed to overcome inequality of the tripartite system  

• The 11+ was to be abolished along with grammar and secondary modern schools 

• They were to be replaced with comprehensive schools – non-select schools that all pupils within the area would attend 

strengths of comprehensive schooling

Aimed to make education more meritocratic and overcome class divide of the tripartite system  

weaknesses of compehensive schooling

The government gave local educational authorities the choice over whether or not to go comprehensive, and no all did --> grammar schools and secondary moderns still exist in some areas 

marketisation

• Introducing market forces to education: choice and competition  

• Reduction of state control 

• Choice for schools on which pupils to take and choice for parents on where to send their child 

• Favoured by New Right as makes schools raise standards to attract customers in competition  

parentocracy

• David

• Argues that marketised education is a parentocracy --> ruled by parents 

• Supporters or marketisation argue that in an education market, power shifts away from producers and towards consumers 

• Hence parents, as consumers can control the education system through the choices they make 

reproduction of inequality

• Increased inequality due to benefit mainly to middle class 

• League tables 

• High achieving schools can be more selective 

• Lower position schools unable to be selective 

• Barlett: creamskimming --> taking the best students, silt-shifting: avoiding taking the less able students  

• Formula funding 

• Better/more popular schools: more funding and better teachers and facilities 

• Unpopular schools: lose income, difficult to match skills, more working-class students end up here 

parental choice

• Gewirtz 

• Marketisation advantages middle class parents, who have economic and cultural capital 

• Privileges-skilled workers: more likely to be middle class, can use their economic and cultural capital to move to better catchment areas and choose the best school 

• Disconnected local choosers: likely to be working class, can’t understand the education system due to lack of cultural capital, choose local schools 

• Semi-skilled choosers: likely to be middle class, want to send they're to the best school, but lack cultural and economic capital so usually have to settle for local  

myth of parentocracy

• Some argue that marketisation reporduces and legitimates inequality, not only between high performing and low performing schools, but also between parents/pupils 

• Ball: only appears to be choice for parents 

• Gewirtz: middle class advantaged as they have cultural capital  

• Leech and Campos: middle class can afford to move closer to better schools --> selection by mortgage 

• Therefore, parentocracy appears to make the system fair but is a myth  

conservative government

• Influenced by neo-liberalism and New Right views aiming to free schools from the dead hands of the state through marketisation and now privatisation 

• Cuts made to the education budget as part of the general policy of reducing state spending  

• Academies and free schools 

academies

• Type of sate school 

• Allowed schools to no longer operate under LEA control 

• Some run by private businesses 

• Some direct state control 

• Unlike New Labour, no focus on reducing inequality  

• Recive fundig directly from the government and are run by an academy trust 

• Have more control over how they do things than community schools 

• Do not have to follow the national curriculum, and can set their own temr times 

• Must follow school admission code 

• Inspected by OFSTED 

• Some schools choose to become academies, but if a school funded by the local authority is judged by inadequate by OFSTED then it must become an academy 

free schools

• Type of state school 

• Allowed schools to be run bu parents, teachers, faith organisations or businesses 

• To overcome the problems of the area 

• Criticised by many as only benefiting middle class 

• Funded by government but not run by the local authority  

• More control over how they run things 

• Do not have to follow the national curriculum, can set their own pay and conditions for staff, and chanfe the length of school terms and the school day 

• All ability schools, so cannot use academic selection processes, must follow the school admission code  

• Inspected by OFSTED 

evaluation of free schools and academies - fragmented centralisation

• Ball: fragmented centralisation 

• Ball says the creation of free schools and academies has led to greater fragmentation and centralaisation  

• Fragmentation  

• Where the comprehensive system is being replaced by a patchwork of diverse provision, that leads to greater inequality of opportunities 

• Centralisation of control  

• The central government alone has the power to allow schools to become academies or free schools to be set up 

• The rapid growth of academies and free schools has greatly reduced the control of local authorities have in education  

• As a result, there is now a lack of accountability to the local communities 

evaluation of free schools and academies - strengths

Adding more diversity in types of schools increases choice for parents 

evaluation of free schools and academies - weaknesses

• Allen argues that free schools only benefit children gtom highly educated families 

• Other critics claim that free schools lower standards – Sweden's educational ranking has dropped since they were introduced 

• Free schools may encourage unnecessary competition in some areas, resulting in reduced popularity and as a result even less state funding of LEA schools 

privatisation

• Trend towards privatisation since late 1980s 

• The transer of educational assets, resources and management from state control to private companies  

• Ball and Youdell identify 2 parts of privatisation: 

• Privatisation within education --> schools beging to act more like private businesses, marketisation 

• Privatisation of education --> private businesses design, or deliver aspects of education that were formerly run by the state 

• As a result of pprivatisation of education, more of taxpayers’ money is going straight into the hands of private companies who provide educational services, rather than to LEAs 

• Ball: the ESI and PPPs 

• The education services industry (ESI) has been expanded, meaning more private companies involved in: 

• Running exams – Pearson, Edexcel 

• School services – staff training and development, school meals, cleaning 

• There are also more public-private partnerships (PPPs) 

• Private sector companies provide the means to design, build, finance and operate educational services on behalf of LEAs 

• Very profitable for companies involved 

• LEAs often have little choice in entering these agreements – often the only way to build new schools due to lack of government funding  

• Privarisation of education can lead to bluring of boundaries between the public and private sector 

• Thoe in public sectors may go on to work for private sector, they have insider knowledge of education which helps in gaining contracts  

globalisation

• Globalisation has had an effect on educational policy due to privatisation of education in the UK 

• Global private companies like Pearson are also involved in providing educational software for schools across the UK 

• Also, private companies are exporting UK education policies to other countires and providing the servies to delivier these policies  

• Neoliberalists approach to education are a response to globalisation  

• In an increasingly competitive global market, education is seen as the key to the UK’s success  

• Politicians have therefore emphasised the marketisation policies to raise standards of education to aid the UK’s economic growth  

• Globalisation has also led to an increased focus on vocational education for similar reasons – to upskill the UK’s worrkforce 

cola-isation of schools

• Ball introduced the term cola-isation of education 

• He explored how large companies influence those in education from an early age to purchase their products and services, developing brand loyalty 

• By placing their products in schools, they can ensure a wide advertisement reach 

• Therefore, these students are more likely to purchase the particular brand further on in their lives 

education as a comodity

• Ball concludes that as a result of privatisation, education is being turned into a legitimate object of private profit making 

• Similarly, Marxist Hall sees academies as an example of the handing over public services of private capitalists, such as educational businesses 

• For Hall, the claim that privatisation drives up standards is a myth used to legitimate turing education into a source of private profit 

strengths of privatisation of education

• More efficient that before raising standards of education  

• More choice for parents through an increased range of school providers 

• The profit motive may encourage private companies to private school and improve failing schools in areas where education is of poor quality  

weaknesses of privatisation of education

• Money may be drained from the education systme in private providers do not reinvest their profits 

• Cherry picking – profit making companies may try to cherry pick schools that can be most easily improved  

• Going out of business may leave children without schools or an essential service, product  

gender policies

• Equal opportunity policies --> GIST and WISE 

• National curriculum --> introduction of coursework, equality in subjects 

• Impact of feminism  

• Higher education more open to women 

ethnicity policies

• Assimilation --> encouraging absorption of British culture 

• Criticised as victim blaming --> ignores poverty and racism  

• Multicultural education --> valuing all cultures in curriculum 

• Criticised as misguided --> minorities not lacking self esteem  

• Critical race theorists argue that it doesn’t tackle institutional racism  

• New RIght argue it perpetuates cultural divisions, should learn British culture  

• Social inclusion --> of minority ethnic groups to raise their achievement: 

• Monitoring exams results by ethnicity 

• Placing legal duty on schools to promote racial equality 

• However, criticised as it still doesn’t tackle the structural causes of ethnic inequality