L6 EOY Resit revision Paper 1

Education Topic 6: Educational Policy and inequality - Marketisation

The government passed the Education Reform Act in 1988 which had introduced marketisation into education. The 1988 Education Reform Act had created an ‘Education Market’ by reducing direct state control over education and increasing consumer choice, thus creating competition between schools. There were also many policies that were introduced under the 1988 Education Reform Act such as:

  1. Parentocracy - Parentocracy was giving parents the choice on where to send their children and what type of school to send their children to. Instead of just sending their children to the closest school, parents can now send them to better schools.

   

  1. Parentocracy had increased social class inequality as now middle class parents are the ones benefitting as their cultural and economic capital puts them at an advantage. For example, middle class parents would be able to move to a better catchment area so their child could attend a better school due to their economic capital and being able to afford to move. Their cultural capital would allow them to be more able to complete lengthy acpplication forms also.

    1. National Curriculum and National Testing - The National curriculum and National Testing was introduced under the 1988 Education Reform Act which ensured that all students were going through the same curriculum and sitting the same exams. This allowed for the best schools to be identified and shame schools that were not performing. GCSE exams were introduced during this period alongside coursework.

   

  1. National Curriculum and National Testing had increased social class inequality because the working class children had to sit the same exams as the middle class children, yet were not starting at the same point, education wise, with things such as speech codes> (elaborated speech code for the middle class children, restricted speech code for the working class children).

    1. Formula funding - Formula funding was introduced under the 1988 Education Reform Act which was money allocated to schools based on each child that they had enrolled. This was aimed at rewarding popular schools and colleges that attracted many customers (pupils and parents). The most successful schools got the most money. The schools that didnt attract many customers (parents and pupils) risked going out of business.

   

  1. Formula funding increased social class inequality as working class parents and students do not necessarily have the material or cultural capital to ’shop around’ for the ‘best’ school, and may end up going to an underfunded school, which then negatively affects the quality of education that the working class children get.

Marketisation 4 mark question

Outline two reasons why marketisation policies may produce inequality of educational achievement between social classes [4 marks] (June 2018) 

  1. One reason why marketisation policies may have introduced inequality of educational achievement between social classes is because with formula funding, woking class parents did not necessarily have enough money and economic capital to be able to shop around for the best school meaning that working class pupils would have likely gone to under funded schools, and so negatively affecting the quality of the education they receive
  2. Another reason why marketisation policies may have introduced inequlity of educational achievement between social classes is because of the National Curriculum and National Testing that was introduced under the 1988 Education Reform Act, the working class children would be sitting the exact same exams as the middle class pupils and although tis may appear to make education more fair, in reality it didn’t as working class and middle class pupils were not starting education from the same point with things such as the working class students having a restricted speech code compared to middle class pupils, and middle class parents having enough money to afford a tutor for their child, middle class pupils were much more likely to do well in these exams compared to working class pupils and so negatively affecting the educational achievement between these two classes.

Education Topic 5: The role of Education

  1. Marxists (Althusser especially) - Marxists see the state as the means by which the capitalist ruling class maintain their dominant position. According to Althusser, the state consists of two elements or ‘apparatuses’, both of which serve to keep the bourgeoisie in power.

   

  1. The Repressive State Apparatus - The Repressive State Apparatus maintains the ruke of the bourgeoisie by force or the threat of force. The RSA includes the police, courts and the army. When deemed necessary, they use physical coercion to repress the working class.

  2. The Ideological State Apparatus - The ideological State Apparatus maintains the bourgeoisie by controlling people’s ideas, values and belief. The ISA includes religion, the media and the educational system.

    1. In Althussers view, the education system is an important part of the ISA. He argues taht it performs two functions:

   

  1. Reproduce - The education systme reproduces class inewuality by transmitting it from generation to generation, by consecutively failing each successive generation of working class students.
  2. Justification - The education system justifies class inequality by producing ideologies, sets of ideas and beliefs, that disguises its true cause. The function of ideology is to persuade workers to accept that inequalityy is inevitable and that they deserve their subordinate position in society. If the workers accept this then they are less likely to cahllenge or threaten capitalism.
    1. Marxists in general also believe that school benefits or helps the bourgeoisie in other ways such as:

   

  1. The correspondence principle - The correspondence principle was put forward by Bowles and Gintis who stated that this is when school mirrors the work place through things such as competition (in school for grades and rewards, in the workplace for promotions) hierarchies (in school the teacher is in charge and teh students are told what to do, in the workplace the employee is being told what to do by the boss who is in charge) and rewards (in school children are rewarded with small rewards to keep them working, in the workpace the employees are given small rewards in order to keep tgem working).

  2. School reinforces the class system - The idea that school reinforces the class system was out forward by Marx himself who stated that the capitalist class are the minority who own the means of production. Their profits come from exploiting the labour of the proletariat. The working class have to sell their labour. They are poorly paid, alienated and unsatisfied. They have no control.

  3. School provides a myth of meritocracy - Capitalism benefits of the idea of meritocracy to stop people from rebelling and seeing education as unfair. In actual facts the main dfactor determining whether or not someone succeeds is education. Poverty is seen as a result of some people who did not work hard enough. If the workers believe this then there will be a lower chance of the working class wanting to overthrow the state government.

The Role of Education 6 marker

Outline three functions that the education system performs for society. [6 Marks]

  1. One function that the education system performs for society is reinforcing the class system. This means that the bourgeoisie are the minoroty group in society that control all of the means of production whilst the working class are the ones who are being exploited to keep the bourgeoisie at the top. This then therefore gives no power to the working class and helps maintain the capitalist society

  2. Another function that the education system performs for society is the correspondance principle. This was put forward by Bowles and Gintis who stated that school mirrors the work place in three ways - competition, rewards and hierarchies.

  3. A third function that the education system performs for society is that school provides a myth of meritocracy. This is because capitalism benefits of the idea of meritocracy to stop people from rebelling against the state. If people believe that school is fair and that it is not unfair then this will mean that there will be less people that are trying to overthrow the state therefore keeping the capitalist society in tact.

Education Topic 2: Class differences in achievement

  1. Labelling - Becker had argued that teachers used information about a childs background to place them into sets. Fast learners were called ’tigers’ and they were usually middle class who had a cleaner appearance anf were sat at the front of the class and were given lots of attention and encouragement. The slow learners were called ‘clowns’ and they were usually working class students who had a less clean appearance who were sat at the back of the classroom and were not given as much attention as the middle class pupils.

   

  1. Gazely - Gazely had interviewed 9 secondary school teachjers and had found that they had normalised working class underachievement. Whilst the middle class children were getting set extension work, because of the working class pupils’ backgrounds, teachers would assume that theere was nothing that could be done for them.

    1. Streaming - Gillbourn anf Youdel had argued that teachers are less likely to see working class pupils as having ability and so will enter them into lower sets and lower tier exams. Gilbourn and Youdel also argued that the educational triage and the A-C economy where schools arranged pupils in three ways:

   

  1. Those that would pass anyway and so dont need much help

  2. Those that have the potential to pass of they receive more help from the teacher and so yhe teacher spends their time focusing on these children

  3. The lost causes that the teachers assume that there is little to no chance of these students passing

    1. Criticims of streaming - one criticism of streaming is that the government have now removed the A-C economy and have moved to the progress 8 which does not allow teachers to stream their pupils in such a way again.

    2. Pupil subcultures - Woods had argued that there were 4 ways that pupils responded to teachers and how they were treated:

   

  1. Integration - these students were the type of ideal student in a sense and being the teachers pet essentially
  2. Ritualism - these students would just go through the motions of school and stay out of trouble
  3. Retreatism - day dreaming and messing about, getting into small amounts of trouble
  4. Rebellion - this is complete rejection of the school, what it teaches and what the school stands for.
    1. Criticism of pupil subcultures - One criticism of pupil subcultures is that pupil subcultures and rhe way that the pupils react to how teachers treat them are not fixed and so can vary from lesson to lesson and teacher to teacher

   

  1. Another criticism of pupil subcultures is that it is a deterministic theory which states that pupils will only react in one of four way , when in reality, they change, or, the pupil may not react at all.