Education- educational policy and inequality

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Education- educational policy in Britain before 19

What was education like in the late 18th- early 19th century?

There were no state schools, education was only available to a minority population. It was provided by fee-paying schools for the well off, or by churchers and charities for a few of the poor. Before 1833 the state spent no public money on education.

How did industrialisation change what eduation was like?

It increase the need for an educated workforce, from the late 19th century the state become more involved in education. Reflecting the growing importance of education, the state made schooling compulsory from ages 5-13. The type of education children recieved depended on their class, middle class pupils were given the academic curriculum to prepare them for work, and working class pupils were giveen the basic literacy and numeracy skills needed for rountine factory work.

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Education- educational policy in Britain before 19

In 1994 what did the education system begin to be influenced by?

The idea of meritocracy- that individuals should achieve their status in life through their own efforts and abilities rather than it being ascribed at birth.

What is the tripartite system?

The idea that children were selected and allocted to 1 of 3 different types of secondary school, according to their aptitudes and abilties. These were identitified by the 11+ exam. 

What were the 3 types of school in the tripartite system?

  • Grammar schools- offered an academic curriculum and access too  non-manual  jobs as well as a higher education. They were for pupils who had academic abity and passed the 11+- these pupils were mainly working class.
  • Secondary modern schools- offered a non academic pratical curriculum and access to manual work for those who failed the 11+- these pupils were mainly working class. 
  • Technical schools which only existed in a few areas.
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Education- educational policy in Britain before 19

What did the tripartite system reproduce and legitimise?

It reproduced inequality by chanelling the two different social classes into different schools , that offered unequal opportunities. The system also reproduced gender inequality by requiring girls to get higher marks than boys in the 11+. It llegitimised inequality through the idelogy that ability is inborn. Therefore it wa thought that ability could be measure early in life through the 11+.

When was the comprehnsive system introduced and what did it aim to do?

It was introduced in many aeas from 1965 onwards, it aimed to overcome the class divide of the tripartite system and make education more meritocratic. The 11+ was abolished along with grammars and secondary moderns, replaced by comprehensive schools which all individuals in the area could attend. 

What was the problem with comprehensive schools?

It was left to the loacl education authority to decide whether to go comprehensive and not all schoos did so. Therefore, the grammar-secondary modern divide still exists. 

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Education- educational policy in Britain before 19

What do functionalists argue about comprehensive schools?

They argue that comprehensices promote social intergration by bringing children of different social classes together in one school. They also  see it is a meritocratic bevause it gives pupils  a longer period in which to develop and show their abiltiies.

What do marxists argue about comprehensive schools?

They argue comprensives are not meritocratic, rather they reporoduce class inequaliity from one generation to the next through the continutation of the practice of labelling and streaming- which denys working class children equal opportunitites. 

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Educational policy- marketisation- card 1

What is marketisation?

The process of introducing market forces of consumer choice and competition between suppliers into areas run by the state such as education. 

How has marktisation created an education market?

  • By reducing state control over education.
  • By increasing competition between schools and parental choice of schools.
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Educational policy- marketisation- card 2

What policies are used in schools to promote marketisation?

  • Publication of league tables and ofsted inspection reports give parents info needed to choose the right school.
  • Business sponsorship of schools.
  • Open enrolement, aschools to recruit more pupils.
  • Specialist schools to widen parental choice.
  • Formula funding- when schools recieve the same amount of funding for each pupil.
  • Schools being allowed to opt out of local authority.
  • Introduction of tuition fees.
  • Allowing parents and others to set up free schools.
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Educational policy- marketisation- card 3

How does the publication of lague tables reproduce inequality?

It ensures that schools with good results are more in demand, as parents are attracted to them. But this encourages:

  • Cream skimming- good schools can be more selective, choose their own customers annd recruit highly achieving, middle-class pupils.
  • Silt-shifting- good schools can avoid taking less able pupils who are likely to gett poor results and damage the schools league table position.  

For schools with poor league table positions the opposite applies- they cannot afford to be selective and they have to ake the less able, working class pupils, so their results are poorer and they remain unattractive tpo middle calss parents. League tables therefore produce unequal schools the reproduce class inequality.

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Educational policy- marketisation- card 4

How does funding formula reproduce class inequality?

Schools are given funds by a formula based on how many pupils they attract. Therefore popular schools get more funds so can afford better qualified teachers and better facilaties. Unpopular schools on the other hand, find it difficuult to mattch the teacher skills and facilaties of their more sucessful rivals. Therefore popular schools with good results thrive and unpopular schools fail to attract pupils so their funding is reduced.

What did Gewirtz find?

In his study of 14 London secondary schoools, he found that differences in parents economic and cultural capital led to  class differences in how far theey could exercise choice of secondary school.She identified 3 types of students who she calss priviledged-skilled choosers, disconnected local choosers and semi- skilled choosers.

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Educational policy- marketisation- card 5

What types of parents did Gewirtz find in her study?

  • Privaleged skilled choosers- Professional, middle class parents who use economic and cultural capital to gain educational capital for children. They were prosperous, confident and well educated, and were able to take full advantage of choices open to them. The possessed economic capital- able to moce to areas in catchment of good schools and cultural capital- able to understand the schools admissions system.
  • Disconnected local choosers- working-class parents wh choices were resricted by their lack of educational and cultural capital. They were unable to understand the schools admissions procedures, they were also less confident in dealings with the school, less aware of choices open to them, and less able to manipulate the system to their advantage. Their funds were limited and a place at the nearest schools was the only realistic option for their children. 
  • Semi-skilled choosers- These parents were mainly working class but were ambititous for their children. Hoowever, they too lacked cultural capital and found it diffiicult to make sense of the education market, often relying  on other peoples opinions of the schools. 
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Educational policy- marketisation- card 6

What is the myth of parentocracy?

The education system makes it appear that all parents have the same freedom to choose which school they send their children to.  However, in reality as Gewirtz foung middle-class parents are  much more able to take advantage of the choices available to them. It makes inequality in education seem fair and inevitable.

What policies did new labour introduce to reduce inequality?

  • Desginating some deprived areas as education action zones and provding them with additional resources.
  • The aim higher programme to raise the aspiratios of groups who were under-represented in higher education.
  • Education maintenance allowances- payments to students from low income backgrounds to enncourage them to stay on after 16 and gain better qualifications.
  • Increased funding for state education.
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Educational policy- coalition government policies-

What are academies introduced by the coalition government?

From 2010 all schools were encouraged to leav local authroity and become academies. Funding was taken from local authority budgets and given directly to the academies, academies were also given control over their cuurriculum. 

What problem was there with the introduction of academies?

By allowing any school to become an accademy the government removed the focus on reducing inequality.

What are free schools?

Free schools are funded directly by the state, but are set up and run by parents, teachers, faith organisations or businesses. 

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Educational policy- coalition government policies-

What advantages are there of free schools?

  • They imrpove educational standards by taking control away from the state and giving power to the parents.
  • Free schools give parents and teachers the opportunity to create a new school if they are unhappy with the state schools in their local area.

What disadvnatages are there of free schools?

  • Allen argues research from Sweden where 20% of schools are free schools, shows that they only benefit children from highly educated families.
  • Free schools are said to be socially diverse which lowers standards- swedens international education ranking has fallen since they were introduced.
  • Appear to raise standards but only do so by strict pupil selection.
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Educational policy- coalition government policies-

What has the promotion of free schools and academies led to?

  • Fragmentation- the comprehensive system is beinf replaced by a patchwork of diverse provision, much of it involving private providers, which leads to greater inequality in opportunities.
  • Centralisation of control- centreal government alone has the power to allow schools to become academies ot allow free schools to be set up, these schools are funded directly by central government which has reduced the role of elected local authorities in education.

What policies to the coalition government introduce which aimed to reduce inequality?

  • Free school meaals- for all children iin reception- year 2.
  • Pupil premium- moneyy that schools recieve for disadvantaged pupils

What probelms are there with these policies?

  • Pupil premium is not spent on those it is supposed to help.
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Educational policy- the privatisation of education

What is privatisation?

The transfer of public assests such as schools to private companies.

What private companies are there in the education service?

  • Edexcel is owned by the US educational publiishing giant Pearson, some Pearson GCSE exam answers are noe marked in Sydney and Iowa.
  • The Uk's 4 leading educational software companises are all owned by global multinationals
  • Private companies are exporting UK education policy to other countires e.g. ofsted, and providing services to deliver these policies. 

What is the cola-isation of schools?

The private sector is penetrating education indirectly, for example vending machines on school premises and the development of bran loyalty through displays of logos and sponsorships. This is the cola-lisation of schools.  

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Educational policy- the privatisation of education

Why are schools targeted by private companies according to Molnar?

Because schools carry by nature an enormous goodwill and can confer legitemacy on anything asscoiated with them- in other words they are a form of product endorsement. 

Why are the benefits to schoolss of the priate sector very limited?

Indivduals have to spend alot of money to reep the benefits. 

For example, Cadbuurys sports equipment ptomotion was scrapped after it was revealed that pupils would have to eat 5,440 chocolate bars for a set of volley ball posts. And UK families have to spend £110,000 in tesco for 1 computer in a school.

According to Ball what fundamental change is taking place in education?

Privatisation is becoming the key factor shaping educational policy, polcies are increasingly focused on moving educational services out of the public sector contol by  the nation-state to be provided by private companies instead. Education is therefore becoming a commodity to be bought and sold in the education market. 

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Educational policy- the privatisation of education

What policies have impacted gender differences in achievement?

  • Policies such as GIST have been introduced to reduce gender differences in subject choice.

What policies have impacted gender differences in achievement?

  • Assimilation policies have focused on the need to asimilate ethnic minorty pupils into mainstream British culture to raise their achievement- especially by helping those for whom  English was not their first language. 
  • Multicultural  education policies aimed to promote the achievements of  children from ethnic minority groups by valuing all cultures in the school curriculum- therefore raising minority pupils self-esteem and achievements.
  • The social inclusion of pupils from minority ethnic groups, and policies to raise their achievement, for example detailed monitoring of exam results, promoting racial equality in schools, voluntary saturday schools in black communities and english as an additional langauge programmes.
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Educational policy- the privatisation of education

What criticisms are there of the policies to raise ethnic minority achievement?

  • Groups at risk of underachieveing already speak English, and the reaal cause of underachievement lies in poverty and racism.
  • MCE is criticised on several grounds- black pupils do not fail due to lack of self-esteem and it fails to tackle institutional racism. 
  • Mizra sees little change in policy, she says educational policy takes a soft approach for tackling inequalitym it focuses on culture and behaviour at home.
  • Institutionally  racist policies in relatiion to the ethnocentric curriculum, disacvantages ethnic minority pupils.
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