Privatisation, Marketisation and Globalisation of education

Privatisation

Ball and Youdell

  • Privatisation IN education- endogenous- involves schools and colleges operating in similar ways to private independent businesses, including managing their own affairs, competing with other schools for pupils, and using target setting and league tables to measure progress.

  • Privatisation OF education- exogenous- Privatisation of education refers to the opening up of state education to private education who design, manage or deliver education e.g. IT companies like Apple and Google providing online curriculum content.

Molnar

  • “Cola-isation” of schools, where private companies target schools because they provide a legitimate, trusted brand endorsement.

Beder

  • Highlights that initiatives like Tesco’s “Computers for Schools” provide limited benefits compared to the immense profits made by the corporations- UK families had to spend £110,000 in Tesco supermarkets in return for a single computer for schools.

Positives

  • Privatisation creates more business- like and efficient schools, leading to raised standards and an increase in the school’’s popularity amongst a potential customer base.

  • Provides parents with more choices.

Negatives

  • Money might be drained from education and into private profit.

  • Privatisation might very well lead to more inequalities in education because schools will want to discourage those children form poorer and disadvantaged families who might threaten the schools league position- Loss of ethos.

Marketisation

  • Began with the 1988 education Reform Act- 3 main features-

  • Independence- refers to the way schools operate similarly to businesses, in that they have control over their own affairs.

  • Competition- schools compete with other schools for customers (pupils).

  • Choice or “parentocracy”- the way in which parents and potential pupils are given the opportunity to decide which school or college they attend, rather than these decisions being made by the local authority- David.

  • these systems are then supported by a quality control system that includes inspections (OFSTED), a national curriculum approved bu the government, and testing and the publication of Performance League tables to help parents identify the best and weakest schools.

evaluation

  • Parentocracy- isn’t a reality for many parents, and while the middle- classes have gained most form parental choice, those families from disadvantaged backgrounds might be discriminated against through hidden or covert methods- Ball.

  • Negative consequences- schools might attempt to maintain their position in league tables by concentrating resources on those pupils who are most likely to achieve (usually middle-class) which increases divisions between pupils.- Whitty.

  • Marketisation fails to help the weaker schools improve, as they lose money to their more successful rivals.

  • There is less control over the planning and supply of school places and less control over school quality, with little regulation to prevent illegal and unfair covert admission policies.

Globalisation

League tables

  • Within education, international league tables compare the standards of educational performance.

  • The international league table known as PISA is measured every 3 to 5 years in order to compare performance from around the world.

  • PISA rankings cause nations to adopt policies from top performers such as Singapore and Finland.

PISA panic

  • The concerns that PISA often highlights creates panic amongst governments, this is known as “PISA panic”.

  • This is because governments want to quickly fix issues so that their education system is looked on more favourably.

International students

  • British universities are relying on globalisation to help with financial hardships.

  • International students generally pay much higher tuition fees than home- based students which therefore brings in extra funds.

Multiculturalism

  • Globalisation has also impacted education due to the increasing flow of people from other cultures.

  • This has led to teachings of multiculturalism, citizenship studies and wider variety of modern foreign languages.

Sociologists

  • Ohmae- Hyper-globalist perspective- Argues that globalisation has a positive effect, promoting global citizenship and expanding horizons, fostering respect for diverse cultures and increasing access to information for better achievement.

  • Castells- Suggests three types of identity in a globalised world: legitimate, resistance and project identities.

  • Beck- Proposes a “global risk consciousness”, where hazards are global, impacting how education approaches global risks.

  • Robertson- Introduced the concept of “glocalisation”- referring to how global products/ ideas are adapted to local contexts.

  • Baudrillard- “media- saturated society”- noting that globalisation creates a more complex, fluid world of constant change and cultural diversity.

Examples of Globalisation

  • PISA rankings

  • Policy borrowing- UK education policies are increasingly influenced by international trends, such as the adoption of free schools from Sweden.

  • International Education Providers- Exam boards (Pearsons) and curriculum providers operate across borders, standardising education content worldwide.