POINT EXPLAIN EVIDENCE LINK EVALUATION

Applying material from the item and your own knowledge, evaluate the claim that marketisation and
privatisation policies have increased educational inequality.

Marketisation refers to the aim of making schools compete with each other for governmental
funding while privatisation refers to the education system being run like a business
corporation rather than a beneficial organisation. Some believe these changes, which
originated from the 1944 Education Act influenced by William Beverridge report 1942, have
improved quality of education, while others like Marxists believe it has reproduced inequality.
To begin with , Item B mentions the ‘increased parental choice’, otherwise known as
parentocracy, which improved due to league tables, by publishing exam results to ensure
schools with good results are more in demand. This means that parents are more attracted
to these schools with higher rankings,as it suggests that there are better teaching and
methods and resources to provide better standards for their child, which increases
‘competition’ as mentioned .However, marxists believe this has complicated choices;
Bartlett’s study proves that through ‘cream skimming’ , better schools can be more selective
and recruit high-achieving pupils that tend to be middle class therefore working class
students will be left to schools with less funding and lower quality resources, despite their
academic efforts, which legitimates educational inequality. Furthermore, league tables are
linked with Gilborn’s Educational triage theory in which the hopeless cases are given no
encouragement therefore resources are not distributed equally, further enhancing this
educational inequality. However, league tables are beneficial to parents as it helps choose
the right school for them with less research and gives schools an incentive to drive up
grades to attract more pupils for formula funding.
Moreover, the introduction of different schools like academies and free schools is mentioned
in the case study, which the new right believe is a good thing as it reduces public spending,
nonetheless, research shows that the selective processes are often rejecting working class
students, for example Allen 2010 discovered that 20% of schools in Sweden are free schools
and that they only benefit highly-educated families. Therefore, once again, the working class
are left for less successful schools with less skilled teachers and given poorer education
which furtherns the gap. And , even in schools with no selection processes, there are
internal processes like setting and streaming which hinder working class achievement
through being placed in low sets with low tier exams. However, it should be noted that free
schools allow parents and teachers to make improvements whereas past secondary modern
schools would not. This could therefore introduce policies to combat these inequalities, such
as Ball’s study where the schools abolished streaming and less polarisation occurred.
Despite these arguments, certain policies introduced had intentions of decreasing inequality,
between 1997 and 2010, as mentioned. The New Labour government identified deprived
zones, and those struggling with low income, with the introduction of social policies like
Education Action Zones for those in deprived areas, the Aim Higher programme to raise their
standards and the addition of EMA for those within low income households to encourage
staying at school and gaining qualifications to promote social mobility. These policies
encouraged those with high aspirations to carry on in school after 16 with financial and
educational help, therefore increasing meritocracy and decreasing inequality. Nevertheless,
Benn 2010 believes that there is a contradiction between their aim to tackle inequality and
desire for marketisation, which therefore reproduces inequality, for example through their
increase in higher education tuition fees, bringing in more profit to benefit them as “privatised
businesses” and treating students as consumers sold for profit.
Lastly, the funding formula is also known to worsen educational inequality. It refers to the
allocated funds that schools are given based on how many pupils they have, meaning
popular schools will have more finance to afford better quality resources and more qualified
teachers, disadvantageous to other schools which are left with old material and perhaps less
technology for modern education. According to the institute for public policy research 2012,
this competition created 40% more segregation between classes as better schools could
then attract more mc pupils and avoid wc pupils coming through backdoor selection
processes such as high uniform prices and complicated entry forms, resulting in a greater
class divide. However, this formula could possibly encourage these lower performing schools
to raise standards to publish better results and match the statistics of other schools.
After evaluating all the previous points, despite the positive intentions some may have had
with these policies, the institutional inequality that lies within schools will simply devour any
contributions, as privatisation includes money being prioritised over quality.
I have developed my answer using the corrections that you sent me last time, however I
don’t think I would be able to write all of this in timed conditions, therefore could you please
give me feedback on which parts are better mentioned in relation to the question, and others
that aren’t really useful.
I would aim for three of these paragraphs if you can. They are all really good so it would be
up to which ones you included.
Evaluate the view that educational policies lead to inequalities between different ethnic groups (20)

While New right believe that marketisation has improved equality through business funded
academies, marxists believe that these policies are suited to certain social groups,
specifically middle class white, and disadvantage working class minority ethnic groups.

The introduction of marketisation in education, specifically league tables, may have indirectly
hindered the progress of black pupils by encouraging a process of ‘educational triage’.
League tables traditionally measure the proportion of pupils gaining five or more A*-C grades
at GCSE. This puts pressure on schools to focus their support on those underperforming
students that teachers consider most likely to respond to additional help. Critically, Gillborn
and Youdell see this triage process as based on teacher labelling. Since studies show black
pupils may be viewed as more disruptive and placed in lower streams, they are denied a fair
opportunity to academic support and higher tiered exams, thus undermining their experience
of education. However, since the root of this inequality is negative teacher labelling, the
introduction of league tables cannot be held entirely to blame.

A second way in which educational policies may have affected the experience of minority
ethnic groups is also proposed by Gillborn. In 2003 a new way of measuring primary school
pupils’ abilities was introduced. The foundation stage profile (FSP) replaced the old ‘baseline
assessment’ and had two key differences. No written test was required by the FSP, so it was
based entirely on teachers’ judgements. Whereas the baseline tests took place at the start of
primary school, the FSP is conducted at the end of foundation stage. Gillborn found
statistical evidence that black children went from being the highest achievers immediately
before the introduction of the FSP to below white children afterwards. However, this was only
the case in one of the local authorities investigated. Gillborn concluded that the function of
nationally standardised assessments is to reinforce the dominant culture’s superiority, and
that the FSP increased the opportunity for racist stereotypes to influence black children’s
scores.
However, there are also ways in which educational policies have improved ethnic group
experiences. Inequality policies including pupil premium and compensatory education
provide fair opportunities for those within minority ethnic groups, as Palmer (2012) found:
Almost half of all ethnic minority children live in low-income households, as against a quarter
of white children. Pupil premium included funding to improve the education of those
disadvantaged while compensatory education included sure start and education action
zones.Due to high statistics of low-income ethnic households, material deprivation would be
tackled through these policies and ensure that their learning isn’t compromised.This would
suggest that all success in school would be based meritocratically, as they are given the
same opportunities and any failure would be due to lack of effort. Nonetheless , Kerr and
West argue that there are too many other external factors that outweigh these policies, such
as working class subculture attitudes or lack of interest due to no father figures, which are
common amongst African Caribbean families, which Sewell blames for their
underachievement.

In conclusion, it is shown that educational policies have worsened ethnic inequalities, as

some ethnic minority groups cannot make use of parentocracy due to lack of cultural capital
and are therefore unable to reach better quality schools, and cannot receive teaching for
respected qualifications.

Evaluate the view that educational policies lead to inequalities between different genders (20)

While New right believe that marketisation has improved equality through business funded
academies, marxist feminists and radical feminists believe that girls are disadvantaged by
these changesas this is still a “man’s world”,while liberal believe policies have helped,
however boys also face consequences.

Firstly, education policies have decreased gender inequalities due to the 1988 reform act.
This is because the national curriculum policy was implemented, meaning that all students
were taught the same content and subjects, regardless of gender. Therefore, girls would not
be disadvantaged due to peer pressure or gender socialisation into different subject choices,
which is proven through the sharp difference between same-sex schools and all girls school
subject choices, shown in Fuller’s study with same sex girls and choosing their preferred
subjects. This would lead to girls feeling comfortable without strict gender domains and have
increased motivation from it being in their area of interest. However, gendered teacher
expectations would affect girls’ perceptions of certain subjects and perhaps encourage
disinterest and lead to decreased attainment.

Furthermore, another policy increasing gender equality includes the comprehensivisation act
of 1965, in which the 11+ exam for the tripartite system was abolished, which is what held
girls back through requiring them to gain higher marks in the 11+ to acquire grammar school
place.This allowed there to be greater meritocracy as the comprehensive schools had no
selection and girls would not face as much pressure. Nonetheless, with comprehensive
schools came setting and streaming, which appeared to disadvantage males as French
found that boys received poor teacher attention as they were seen to have behavioural
difficulties (Slee), so were therefore placed in lower sets, which influenced the creation of
self-fulfilling prophecies and anti-school subcultures,which shows how even no selection
schools extended the gender gap. However,we cannot blame the processes within school
entirely as it is simply studied that girls are more conscientious and exceed due to their early
socialisation and bedroom culture (Mitsos and Browne).

Nevertheless, the introduction of the tripartite system in 1944 hindered girls' access to
education. This is due to the regulations behind the 11+ exam, which requires girls to gain
higher marks than boys in the 11+ exam to obtain a grammar school place. This therefore
removed any equality through meritocracy, as girls could try just as hard as boys, yet their
efforts would be undermined. This ‘myth of meritocracy’ legitimates gender inequality by
making unequal achievement seem fair and just, because failure looks like it is the fault of
the individual rather than the system. Radical feminists suggested that for this reason, there
were many more boys with grammar schools places, securing professional jobs to restrict
the rise of feminism, therefore creating a self-fulfilling prophecy and decreasing later
motivation. However, due to better teacher expectations with girls, it is unlikely that self
undermining perception tarnishes their efforts greatly.

To conclude, many policies have improved the gender gap such as GIST and WISE policies,
however the other gender is disadvantaged with each policy, for example due to the
feminisation of education therefore it can be said that these policies have widened the gap
even more.

Evaluate sociological explanations of the relationship between education and globalisation (20)

Globalisation is known as the increased interconnectedness between people and nation

states which have evolved processes within education.

To begin, globalisation has positively impacted education through driving up standards and
increasing competition between schools across the globe. This is because of global
rankings, such as PISA, in which the UK occupies 13th place, which therefore gives schools
incentive to drive up their grades, and as for business sponsored academies, improve their
brand image. Kelly argues that increased specialist skills taught in technology and science
have promoted this competitiveness, in order to achieve greater economic funding.However,
this correlation has been criticised by Ball as it suggests that students are bought as
commodities and being sold for a profit, while neoliberal believe this has helped expansion
and standards. This increased competition has resulted in rivalry for jobs, which shows the
relation between globalisation and education as schools followed by altering their curriculum
to meet new needs eg computer science

Furthermore, due to migration within globalisation, education has faced greater

multiculturalism. This is because children from all across the world are expanding school
nationalities and therefore there is decreased ethnocentrism in curriculums as schools must
respect religious holidays and teach about history and cultures in an appropriate manner.
Holborn also argues that the increased migration has allowed greater ethnic tolerance, which
has narrowed the ethnic attainment gap by removing racist attitudes and possibly erasing
the “locked in inequality” theory proposed by Roithmayr and more respect for
differences,according to the hyper-globalist view. Therefore, processes within school will no
longer hinder ethnic achievement, and push towards a more meritocratic
system.Nonetheless, marketisation policies that came along with globalisation, such as
league tables and the educational triage have retained racial stereotypes.
Another relationship between globalisation and education includes improved economic
development. This is because greater corporations have begun to support the education
system, such as IT companies like Apple and Google are supporting schools with resources
such as online resources and curriculums. This offers better quality resources to schools in
general, allowing deprived schools to offer similar education as in demand schools,
narrowing the attainment gap. Furthermore, the growth of these IT companies has
challenged the authority of traditional schooling and even teachers, as the same resources
can be found for free on youtube, meaning that there is encouragement to drive up teaching
methods and raise standards to avoid a loss of their function, which could improve the
quality of education. However, marxist believe that these opportunities are only given to the
wealthy as global corporations set the agenda.

To conclude, globalisation has been seen to improve processes within school through
increased safeguarding issues and consideration for student wellbeing, but also with the
help of external corporations, allowing reduced government funding proposed by
neoliberalists.

Evaluate the impact of selection policies on educational achievement

The education system has been criticised by marxists for its discriminatory policies to raise
standards, however various governments also introduced contrasting selection policies, to
overcome these inequalities.

To begin with, the Butler Act in 1944 consisted of the tripartite system, with the grammar,
secondary modern and technical schools, with a selection process through the 11+ exam.
This selection process was suggested by Burt, who believed it was a reliable manner of
measuring intelligence, and it removed certain inequalities between private and state
schools by offering an opportunity to all based on ability rather than background.However,
this selection arguable reproduced gender inequality by requiring girls to achieve higher
grades to gain a grammar school place, while also legitimating ruling class ideology by
suggesting that ability is innate, when the child’s background does in fact play a large factor.
This suggests that this selection process widened the attainment gap, both by gender and
class, reinforcing Althusser’s theory of patriarchal ideological state apparatus.

Secondly, another selection policy introduced by the Conservative government, was open
enrolment through the 1965 comprehensivisation act. This meant that there was no selection
through ability, instead through catchment area. This meant that social groups would be
mixed, fostering social cohesion and transmitting shared values, which instilled a sense of
meritocracy with the introduction of the national curriculum. Nonetheless, this selection
process was criticised by Ball, because there is a myth of parentocracy as middle class
parents were considered privileged skilled choosers with cultural capital, while working class
were disadvantaged as disconnected local choosers or semi-skilled chooser. Middle class
could play the selection system through understanding league tables. Furthermore,
catchment areas lacked diversity as the middle class could move to better areas, leaving
less successful schools with working class, widening the class gap.

Moreover, another selection policy introduced was schools admissions code which forbids
any discrimination in selection through socio-economic background or ability. This meant
that parents could send their child to any and if they are undersubscribed, they must take
them however successful schools filled up quickly so parents may not get their first
choice.Issues with this consisted of backdoor selection, in which schools would raise uniform
prices or making literature harder to understand, or even not advertising in poorer areas.This
therefore restricted working class from applying at first, as Gerwitz considered working class
as disconnected local choosers;they could not afford transportation or accommodation near
better resourced schools,so would be left with unsuccessful schools with less qualified
teachers & fewer learning resources, again worsening the class divide.

In conclusion, these selection policies run in line with marketisation policies, preventing
cultural-capital lacking families to access. However, the comprehensive schools did bring
meritocracy by allowing students longer time to develop.

One of the educational trends that has become of increasing concern is the extent to which
pupils from a range of social backgrounds are being left behind compared with their peers.
For example, recent trends show an increasing gap in achievement between pupils on free
school meals and those not on FSM. Governments have attempted to tackle this issue
through providing additional funding for schools and improving choice of educational
provision.However, critics have suggested that these policies have served to create more
inequality in the education system.

Applying material from Item B and your own knowledge, evaluate the view that the main
aim of educational policy has been to improve outcomes for working-class pupils.

Educational policies consist of processes put in place to achieve academic goals.They have
revolutionised the education system ,with contrasting intentions, of raising standards and
improving equality between social groups. Consensus theories believe they have improved
meritocracy while conflict theories believe they create a dependency and worsen
inequalities.

Firstly, the 1988 Education Reform act is said to have improved education as it introduced
the national curriculum, ensuring all students are taught the same subjects and content,
which aids “social backgrounds being left behind”. This also allowed a sense of shared
values to be transmitted, therefore all social groups shared similar knowledge, which
removed the barrier of educational capital (Bourdieu). However, this only applies to certain
schools because academies do not have to follow the national curriculum. Also, the policy
“serves to create more inequality” through assuming that all pupils are suited, while it only
suits the academic student, therefore others are unaffected and teachers may develop
stereotypes of them being “lazy” and initiate a self-fulfilling prophecy, worsening inequality.

Furthermore, policies that improve equality of circumstance include compensatory

education, in which resources are given for deprived areas, and pupil premium, funding
given for disadvantaged groups. Examples of compensatory education include operation
head start, education action zones and sure start, which all tackle cultural deprivation to
avoid learning gaps before children begin school. The aim was for all disadvantaged children
to have access to a sure start centre by 2010, which “improves choice of educational
provision”. However, Kerr and West claim that there are too many other factors outside
school that impact achievement. And, pupil premium has been proven to be inefficient as the
funds are distributed unequally as a lot of schools are spending the money to plug gaps in
school funding, so not targeting it at disadvantaged students, but just spending it on general
school needs, so children are not being helped and the inequality is only reproduced.

Lastly, the comprehensivisation act of 1965 has supposedly improved the outcomes for
working-class pupils because there is no selection based off socio-economic
background.The selection is based off catchment area so middle class and working class
can be mixed to foster social cohesion and ensure they are not “ left behind”. Furthermore,
being in the same environment encourages shared values, to enhance social solidarity
(Durkheim). However, working class are still likely to face discrimination from internal
processes like streaming based off teacher’s judgement, and catchment areas aren’t
generally diverse so less successful schools would likely be within deprived areas,restricting
learning development and widening the gap.

To conclude, despite the efforts of different governments, it is noticed that there are covert
selection manners that prevent these policies from reaching success, such as hidden costs
and myths of parentocracy therefore critics of these policies are correct in saying that it has
worsened the inequality.

Research methods

Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods,

evaluate the strengths and limitations of using written questionnaires for
investigating working-class educational underachievement.

Practical: better response rate as people can reply at their leisure; cheaper than interviews; no
responses may be from an underrepresented group.
Ethical: they have informed consent & anonymity
Theoretical: quantitative data- preferred by positivists,
Eval: parents/students/teachers respond differently as they all have different attitudes to
school; class underachievement may affect the school due to negative publicity

Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the
strengths and limitations of using documents to investigate working-class pupils'
experiences of school.

Practical: really accessible (internet), not expensive or time-consuming so they could spend more
time finding more info, archives now publish artefacts online, however better resources aren’t free so
they may choose worse ones to save money (not accurate representation of experiences) not
necessarily representative for who they wish to study and personal documents are hard to reach
Ethical: personal documents risk confidentiality and privacy, however if documents already
exists then there is no need for consent , little validity for published diaries as its subjective
Theoretical: can use content analysis to reveal trends which is reliable and not
subjective way of analysis however cannot reveal patterns for all things especially working class
struggles
Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods,
evaluate the strengths and limitations of using group interviews for
investigating the causes of educational underachievement among boys.

Practical: may be difficult to access(students are gatekeeped by parents and teachers), small sample
size; ambiguities in questions can be clarified; time- consuming as it takes longer to analyse- costly;
not standardised.
Ethical: peer pressure; informed consent
Theoretical: preferred by interpretivists- verstehen but they may be blind sighted by
empathy and this could cause results to be biased- Willis. qualitative data; unstructured= flexibility-
able to build rapport.
Eval: peer groups may care about what they say and how it makes them look so they
will not be honest- laddish behaviour; parents may have a negative view towards education; teachers
don't want to be told they label their students

Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the
strengths and limitations of using structured interviews to investigate pupils’
decisions on their future education and careers.

Practical: Quickly reach large amount, quantitative data for hypothesis testing on where researchers
thought they would have chosen. Standardised. More expensive than just posting out, call-backs
increase costs
Ethical: researchers may be pushy for them to answer questions, mental harm. Graham as a feminist
believes that women are seen in isolation in context of power relationships that oppress them.
Theoretical: easy to repeat for reliability, high response rate e.g. young and willmott studied 987 and
only 54 refused. However, those who choose to take part may be atypical, less representative; less
valid because it restricts explanation or reasoning so interpretivists reject

Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the
strengths and limitations of using official statistics to investigate how successful a
school is.

Practical: readily available so it is cheap as it is fast; large scale so it is representative and

generalisable; comparability- it shows trends as it can cover a long time span e.g crime stats
Ethical: confidentiality- may put people off going to that school (affects market league); deception-
stats may lack accuracy e.g health stats (some Docs diagnose incorrectly); publicly available so
unlikely to breach ethical guidelines.
Theoretical: preferred by positivists- quantitative data- lacks validity, no verstehen. - miles
and irvine say they are manipulated by governments
Eval: teachers want to show the school in the best light, Ofsted reports may be
inaccurate. statistics cannot be taken at face value- people may lie (e.g victim survey); stated are
useful in highlighting trends in schools

Applying material from Item B and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the
strengths and limitations of using written questionnaires to investigate working-class
educational underachievement.

Practical: quick and cheap, can reach a large audience so representative results of working-class,
quantifiable and test hypotheses to compare against other sources from statistics e.g. Connor and
Dewson posted 4000 copies of questionnaires. H, inflexible as wc may not understand, incentive for
uncomfortable people to reply may push up costs. Favored by positivists
Ethical:few ethical issues, informed consent by completing, no pushy researcher present however no
rapport can be built
Theoretical: Easily repeated and checked by other researchers against findings of other social
classes,any differences in answers reflect real differences. However, low response rate (e.g. Shere
Hite’s 4.5% rate) those who don’t reply are likely to have contrasting views. Low validity as it is a
snapshot of one moment in time.Social desirability (interpretivists reject due to detached researcher)

Applying material from Item C and your knowledge of research methods, evaluate the
strengths and limitations of using structured interviews to investigate the influence of
the family on pupils’ education

Structured interviews are usually closed-ended interviews which produce reliable, quantitative data.
They are relatively quick to carry out and require little training. If the school agrees to the research
taking place the researcher would be able to get a large sample of pupils. However, these interviews,
although preferred by positivists, are limiting because the questions are fixed. The quantitative nature
of the interviews means they are ideal for examining cause and effect such as whether parents
attending parents’ evening has an impact on the pupils’ education.
However, when asking parents about how they bring up their children there could be
many problems. Most parents will not want to be thought of as bad parents who do not care about
their child. These parents will want to show that they are supportive of their child. The formality of a
structured interview will increase parents’ fear and this means that parents may give socially desirable
answers, especially as they are face-to-face with the interviewer. They may see the interviewer as a
teacher in disguise and this will further encourage choosing answers that may not reflect the true
situation of their involvement in their child’s education.
Another problem with unstructured interviews is they are inflexible.
Closed questions with limited responses will only give the options chosen by the researcher and so
may miss vital aspects of home life that could have an impact on a child’s achievement such as
temporary housing or domestic abuse. This is likely if the parents are working class and the
sociologist is middle class and does not have experience of working class life or know the concerns or
worries facing working-class families. Working-class parents may have lower levels of education
and speak in restricted speech code. This means they may not understand a question or they may
say something the sociologist does not understand. In a structured interview the sociologist cannot
ask for clarification of what has been said. The same problem applies if the parent and the sociologist
are of a different ethnic background, in this case there may also be a language barrier if the parent
does not speak English or it is not their first language.
Many deprived pupils may have a sense of shame or stigma
attached to them. Many do not claim free school meals for this reason and if they are asked about this
they may not want to tell the truth. They may lie and they are more likely to lie when they do not feel
relaxed or comfortable. This is much more likely in a structured interview as there is no chance to gain
rapport. Since the interviewer is present there is an increased risk of social desirable answers. There
may be an ethical issue of harm linked to the research due to the nature of the topic and the questions
that the interviewer may ask about personal circumstances linked to the pupil’s home background.
A problem with structured interviews with pupils is that
most of them will be under 18. This means that they are unable to give their consent and this will
cause some ethical concerns. Parents will be unlikely to give their consent because they will feel a
sense of shame or they just may not want their child to be part of the research which asked them to
give personal details about the parent-child relationship. Structured interviews could be used with
teachers to assess their views of the impact of home background. Teachers would be more likely to
take part in a structured interview as they are less time consuming. As the questions would be related
to children’s home backgrounds, teachers may not be able to answer all the questions if they did not
have all the details of a pupil’s home situation. Teachers may also give answers that suggest that
achievement is linked to factors at home rather than in the school as this takes some of the pressure
away from their responsibility.