Please note: that I have currently written 7 essays on the Sociology of Education and intent to write a few more in the near future. Note that in each case these essays are far longer than could be written under examination conditions and that although they include points of knowledge , application and evaluation I tend to use separate paragraphs for each of these categories rather than to combine several categories in each paragraph as in the strongly recommended PEEEL approach whereby each paragraph should include Point; Explanation, Example: Evaluation and Link to following Paragraph.
I hope that you find the information in these essays useful but would strongly recommend that you write your own essays using the PEEEL approach or something very similar to it. Obviously your teachers will advise you as to appropriate essay writing technique.
Essay: Education Policy and Pupil Achievement
Date Page last edited: 02/03/2020
For further information on several of the issues covered in this document click on the above Education link. Click here for detailed notes, a PowerPoint and an assignment on Coalition Education Policies. Also you may read a summary of Coalition Education Policies here
Students may find the following first 10 links especially helpful...I hope!
Click here for BBC Radio 4 Analysis: A Subversive History of School Reform. Also BBC Radio 4: The Briefing Room : Grammar Schools [28 minutes]
Click here for a 1977 edition of Panorama which presented a not entirely reassuring view of one comprehensive school. This original previous link is broken but you can now click here to access the progamme. There is also a very useful commentary. Let's hope this link will last !
Click here for a podcast by The Sociology Guy on Education and Social Policy June 2nd 2018
Click here for a podcast on the New Right and Education and here for a podcast on Marketisation and Education and here for a podcast on Privatisation and Education and here for podcast on Education Policies and Social Class Inequality [ Mr Craig Gelling for Tutor2U] March 2020
Click here for a podcast by Ms Alexandra Sugden on Education Policy and Inequality and here for her podcast on The New Right and Education Policy June 2nd 2018
Click here for short video lecture by Professor Diane Reay who addresses the issues covered in this document December 2017
Click here for recent article from Professor Diane Reay December 2017
Click here for BBC Radio 4 Analysis: The Pupil Premium presented by Dr Becky Allen. October 2018
Click here for Panorama Profit before Pupils?: The Academies Scandal [Website states that this programme is available for only 28 days but as of March 2020 it is still available. Thanks BBC!] These two Panorama items are separate programmes
Click here for The Academies Scandal [Panorama Via You Tube] March 2019.
Click here for Guardian coverage of Sutton Trust Report on Academy Chains and the progress of disadvantaged pupils. The Guardian article contains a link to the full report which has an excellent summary history of academisation as well as detailed research findings. December 2018
Click here for guardian coverage and here for BBC coverage of report stating that school admission procedures discriminate against poorer families
For detailed data on numbers of academies, free schools and studio schools and UTCs as of August 2020 Click here and then on the first link you see and then on summary, you can also Click here for more detailed data as of April 2019
In July 2018 UCL /Institute of Education published a highly significant report on Coalition Education Policies. Click here for a UCL/Institute of Education item with links to the full report and click here for Observer coverage of the report
Click here for a detailed academic paper on Labour and Education Policy 1997-2010 [Heath. A and Sullivan. A and Boliver. V and Zimdar A [2013} Education under New Labour 1997-2010 Oxford review of economic policy29[1]pp227-247 October 2018
Click here for an article from the Institute for Fiscal Studies on Education Spending Trends April 2019
Click here for Guardian article "Off Rolling" April 2019
Click here for Guardian article on use of Pupil Premium revenues to close budget gaps April 2019
Click here for Panorama [September 10th 2018] Profit before Pupils?: The Academies Scandal [Website states that this programme is available for only 28 days but as of March 2020 it is still available. Thanks BBC!]
Click here for significant Guardian article based on the work of Professor Stephen Gorard September 2018
Click here for Observer view of education policy July 2018
Click here for Guardian coverage of recent report on education policy July 2018
Click here for a Guardian article on Academies by Michael Rosen July 2018 [but article written May 2018]
Click here for "Last Chance Academy " [Panorama 2014]
Click here for recent article from Professor Diane Reay December 2017
| This document has been revised in October-November 2016 and additional links have been added between 2016 and 2018. In the first part of the document I have attempted to summarise some of the main developments in education policy between 1979 and 2016 but, very unfortunately, even my summary will have to be drastically shortened for use under examination conditions.
In the second part of the document I have written an essay on education policy and pupil achievement which includes a "summary of a summary" of the main education policies since 1945 followed by a description of different sociological perspectives on relationships between education policies and pupil achievements. The third part of the document is a concluding assignment. It may be that students will wish to read the document from beginning to end but alternatively it may be useful to read the essay first , then to look at the assignment and to return to the original policy summary if you wish to clarify any points of detail. My essay runs to approximately 9 pages of typing but I hope that with some further discussion and after completing the assignment you will be able to generate your own summary which will be more concise and more useful for examination purpose. Well: good luck with that.
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- Part One : A Brief Summary of Education Policies of Conservative Governments [1979-1997] ,Labour Governments [1997-2010] the Coalition Government [2010-15] and the current Conservative Government.
- Click here for BBC Radio 4 Analysis: A Subversive History of School Reform. Also BBC Radio 4: The Briefing Room : Grammar Schools [28 minutes]
Sociologists would analyse the education policies of Conservative and Labour governments from different sociological perspectives. From Functionalist and New Right and perspectives Conservative education policies and some Labour education policies would be seen as beneficial to pupils while Labour's policies would be supported especially by moderate social democratic theorists although they might also fear that New Labour's education policies have been influenced by New Right ideas in ways which inhibit the likelihood of increased meritocracy and Interactionist theories could be used to suggest that any education policies which promoted negative labelling would also undermine meritocracy. Marxists would be critical of both Conservative and Labour policies as inevitably supportive on an unequal, unjust capitalist system and while Liberal Feminists would recognise the usefulness of some Conservative and Labour policies, Marxist/Socialist and Radical Feminists would be more likely to emphasise the limitations of these policies.
Conservative Education Policies 1979-1997.
Conservative Governments of 1979-1997 strengthened the private Education sector via the Assisted Places scheme [which provided grants for talented students of limited means to take up places at private schools] , supported the continued existence of selective state grammar schools and also introduced several new education policies many of which were contained in the 1988 Education Reform Act. They included : the introduction of a National Curriculum; tests for 7, 11 and 14yearolds as well as 16 year olds; increased freedom of choice for parents/pupils to choose their secondary school rather than being allocated almost automatically to their nearest local secondary school; Local Management of Schools whereby head teachers were given greater control over their school budgets; the increased dependence of school funding on school numbers so that more popular schools would attract larger funds and vice versa..
In addition so-called league tables were created on the basis of schools' published examination and truancy rates; there were more frequent school inspections carried out by OFSTED whose reports were published which provided some useful comparative information for parents; the GCSE replaced the GCE and CSE examination in 1988.The Conservatives also introduced a limited number of City Technology Colleges and Specialist schools and a range of policies under the general heading of the New Vocationalism in an attempt to deal with what they saw as the failure of the education system to adequately meet the needs of industry .
The Conservatives argued on the basis of neo-liberal ideology that their education policies would create a so-called quasi market in education which would would enhance school diversity and parental choice, facilitate the expansion of effective schools and the closure of ineffective ones and lead to improved standards for all pupils including those from the poorest backgrounds. Furthermore it was argued that the process of quasi -marketisation would generate a "parentocracy" whereby individual parents would have far greater individual choice in determining the schools which their children would attend.
However several education policy analysts were critical of the neo-liberal approach was indicated especially in the work of Ball , Bowe and Gerwitz . In their study "Markets, Choice and Equity in Education " [1995] Ball, Bowe and Gerwitz criticised Conservative education policies designed to provide parents with a wider choice of schools for their children because in their view middle class parents and their children would be especially likely to benefit from this choosing process because they possess the cultural and economic capital to choose more effectively. With regard to parental choice, Gerwirtz, Ball and Bowe distinguish between mainly middle class "privileged choosers" and mainly working class "semi-skilled and disconnected choosers" admitting however that these categories are , to some extent ideal types and that many parents may be difficult to classify exactly. Nevertheless according to Ball, Bowe and Gerwitz it would be the middle class "privileged choosers which would gain most from the Conservative reforms. designed to increase parental choice which would obviously undermine claims that "parentocracy rules" in the education system.
Labour Government Education Policies 1997-2010
In general terms Tony Blair's New Labour government accepted much of the Thatcherite neo-liberal agenda while at the same time claiming to support a modernised version of social democracy which would be more in tune with the demands of an increasingly globalised world economy [all of which has been described , accurately or otherwise, by left wing critics as amounting to little more than "warmed over neo-liberalism" or "Thatcherism with a smiling face"] and he also showed himself to be ready to accept much of Conservative Education policy although New Labour would also introduce a range of compensatory measures which many argued were informed by a recognisably social democratic political philosophy .
[Click here for the New Labour approach to Compensatory Education]
By 1997 there were increasing concerns within the Labour government and elsewhere that educational standards in some comprehensive schools were in serious need of improvement. Inspectors reported that lessons were often badly taught , that pupil discipline was poor and that although GCSE results were gradually improving more than 50% of students nationally were failing to achieve 5 or more A*-C grades and in many comprehensive schools with primarily working class intakes only 15% - 30% of students were gaining the 5 A*-C grades.
Schools Effectiveness Research indicated too that there were wide variations in examination results in schools with similar socio-economic intakes thus demonstrating that variation in examination results was caused at least partly by variation in the quality of the schools themselves and not only by socio-economic conditions external to the schools.
It is likely that in the mid 1990s Tony Blair, David Blunkett and their policy advisers believed that the Labour Party was identified too closely in the electorate's mind with uncritical support for progressive education and the comprehensive principle and with dogmatic opposition to grammar schools , private education and to recent Conservative reforms such the National Curriculum, more rigorous school inspection regimes and increased secondary school diversity. Consequently successive Labour Governments accepted much of the neo-liberal rationale for the development of a quasi market in education and Labour's 1997 General Election manifesto emphasised that Labour would abolish grammar schools only if a majority of eligible parents voted for their abolition and that reform of the Comprehensive system must involve a shift from mixed ability teaching to setting. Thus Labour's 1997 Manifesto stated "We must modernise comprehensive schools. Children are not all of the same ability, neither do they learn at the same speed. That means "setting" children in classes to maximise progress for the benefit of high fliers and slow learners alike. The focus must be on levelling up, not levelling down." Furthermore private schools would be retained and Labour Governments hoped that if private schools strengthened their links with state schools this would promote improvement of the state sector.
Labour governments introduced a massive range of education policies designed both to raise average education standards and to improve the educational standards of more disadvantaged students and have also introduced various initiatives to improve vocational education and training .These policies have included increased government spending on education ,increased use of private finance initiatives, the ending of the Assisted Places Scheme, the Sure Start programme, the expansion of nursery education, reduced class sizes for 5,6and 7 year olds, home-school agreements, literacy and numeracy hours, increased use of target setting, modification of Advanced level courses incorporating separate examinations taken in the first year {AS level] and the second year [A2 level] of A Level courses, the expansion of vocational education, the retention of City Technology Colleges, the expansion of Specialist schools, Faith schools and City Academies designed to increase diversity and choice within the secondary sector and the Education Action Zones and Excellence in Cities programmes, the Extended Schools Programme, the introduction of the Education Maintenance Allowance and the Aim Higher Programme designed to target resources on relatively disadvantaged pupils, the London Challenge Programme designed to address the problem of London's underperforming schools [ a very successful initiative] and the Every Child Matters initiative designed to protect children who might be at risk. However Labour have also continued the process begun by the Conservatives whereby loans and fees have increasingly replaced grants in the financing of Higher Education.
Some critics of Labour's education policies have argued that the criticisms of Conservative education policies which had been outlined by Ball, Bowe and Gerwitz and others[see above] might be seen to apply equally to Labour's Choice and Diversity agenda. They claimed also that Labour adopted an overall rhetoric which continued what Paul Trowler has called the "discourse of derision" applied to teachers and schools during the Conservative era and could be interpreted as suggesting a criticism of the fundamental principle of comprehensivisation and as undermining the best efforts of teachers working in the more "challenging" comprehensive schools. Thus Tony Blair's first Secretary of State for Education David Blunkett "named and shamed" 18 comprehensive schools deemed to be "failing"; Alistair Campbell [ himself a staunch supporter of comprehensivisation] publicised Tony Blair's choice and diversity agenda as signalling "the end of the bog standard comprehensive" while a subsequent Education Secretary Estelle Morris stated that although some comprehensives were very good there were others that she "would not touch with a barge pole".
Perhaps the most forceful supporter of the choice and diversity agenda was the Prime Minister's education adviser and subsequent Minister for Education Lord Andrew Adonis. In his recent book "Education: Education: Education" Lord Adonis has criticised the roles of some Local Education Authorities and the Teachers Unions in the development and implementation of education policy and claimed that in many cases little had been done to modernise many [but certainly not all] comprehensive schools which consequently , even at the beginning of the 21st Century, could be described as essentially "Secondary Modern Comprehensives." Thus , for Lord Adonis the choice and diversity agenda in general and the Academies Programme in particular represented an attempt not to undermine the comprehensive principle but to improve the effectiveness of the comprehensive schools through reform of their management structures and teaching methods. However many continue to argue that despite the arguments of Lord Adonis , the choice and diversity agenda does indeed undermine the comprehensive principle in a manner which is highly likely to result in increasing inequality of educational opportunity. Thus the criticisms of Conservative education policies which had been outlined by Ball, Bowe and Gerwirtz might be seen to apply equally to Labour's Choice and Diversity agenda.
One of the most significant aspects of quasi -marketisation of process has been the Academies Programme which was introduced by the Labour Government in 2002 and accelerated significantly under the Coalition Government. A large number of studies of Labour's Academies programme have been undertaken although it is generally agreed that it is too soon to evaluate the effectiveness of new academies opened by the Coalition. Many of the Coalition's academies are converter academies which differ in important respects from the sponsored academies opened by Labour although a fairly large number of Coalition academies are also sponsored academies.
In Feb 2015 The House Of Commons Education Select Committee published its Report on Academies and Free Schools. Click here for the full report on Academies and Free Schools and scroll to Section 2 pp 10-24 for the section on Academisation and Pupil Progress] The members of this committee have been advised by Professor Stephen Machin who has himself conducted important and highly respected research on the possible effects of academisation on pupil attainment some of which is summarised in my own summary document on Academies. The Committee concentrate their research primarily on the effects of sponsored academisation on pupil progress arguing that it is to soon too assess the effects of the Converter Academies. Their key conclusion is that "Current evidence does not allow us to draw firm conclusions on whether academies are a positive force for change. According to research we have seen, it is too early to judge whether academies raise standards overall or for disadvantaged children. This is partly a matter of timing. We should be cautious about reading across from evidence about pre-2010 academies to other academies established since then."
Click here for What does it mean to be an academy?
Click here for Guardian coverage of research suggesting that academisation has had no long term impact on GCSE results in the schools academised by Labour Governments
During the years of Conservative Government 1979-1997 and Labour Governments 1997- 2010 overall educational achievements as measured by examination results did improve: the percentage of pupils gaining 5 or more GCE ordinary levels and subsequently 5 or more A*-C GCSE grades increased; more pupils passed GCE Advanced Level Examinations ;more pupils enrolled on Higher Education courses and more young people embarked upon various schemes of vocational education and training. However it has been argued also that very substantial social class inequalities in educational achievement , gender differences in educational achievement and ethnic differences in educational achievement remain despite the range of policies introduced by Conservative and Labour Governments.
It has also been pointed out that under successive governments some schools have resorted to the tactic of removing mainly disadvantaged students from their school registers[ so-called off -rolling] in order to massage their examination pass rates upwards so as to improve their league table positions by bogus means. These actions also mean that official DfE statistics may understate the real degree of class inequality in educational attainment.
Click here for a detailed report and for a summary of the report on Labour's Record on Education: Policy, Spending and Outcomes 1997-2010.
Coalition Education Policies 2010- 2015
Click here for a detailed Report and here for a summary of the report on The Coalition's Record on Education: Policy, Spending and Outcomes 2010-2015
In opposition both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats often supported Blairite education reforms, sometimes voting in favour of policies which several Labour MPs were unwilling to support. As Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove emphasised the need to drive up overall education standards and to promote increased social mobility through education, a theme which has been strongly supported also by Liberal Democrat Education Ministers. Coalition education policies have exhibited both similarities with and differences from the policies of previous Labour Governments.
There are certainly significant disputes surrounding the ideological beliefs of the current Conservative Party leader David Cameron. While claiming that he is “not a particularly ideological politician” he has also identified himself as both an economic liberal and a social liberal supporting what he believes to be the economic benefits of Thatcherite neo-liberal economic policies while also distancing himself from Thatcherite neo-conservatism on issues such as family policy and law and order although Cameron has still articulated neo-Conservative attitudes to law and order on occasion, for example in relation to the urban disturbances of 2011. He has also, however, identified himself with a MacMillanite version of One Nation Conservatism, emphasised the increased importance of environmental protection and the need to promote greater civic engagement via the implementation of the so-called Big Society Programme. At the same time the Conservatives have emphasised that overall income inequality and under Labour Governments 1997-2010 [ while it has been reduced between 2010 and 2012/13 although it has also been pointed out that income inequality is expected to increase again from 2013/14 onwards. Nevertheless the Conservatives claimed that it is they rather than Labour who can be best relied upon to defend the interests of the poor and to promote greater equality of educational opportunity.
While some political analysts have tended to accept David Cameron’s self-definitions as a “ modern”, ”compassionate, “One Nation” Conservative others have argued that in all essentials Cameron has accepted Thatcherite neo-liberal economic policies; that one should also not overstate his divergence from Thatcherism on law and order questions; that his commitments to environmentally friendly policies have not been sustained in government; and that his plans for increased civic engagement have been met with generalised cynicism and have achieved little. Meanwhile, however on the Right of the Conservative Party Cameron’s apparent One Nation Conservatism, his links with the Liberal Democrats and his [and, according to the Right] insufficient Euroscepticism have been seen as all too real and a cause for alarm rather than celebration. Finally because he is perceived by some as Thatcherite and by others as One nation Conservative this has led some to argue that in reality he is the ultimate ideologically rootless, pragmatic politician .
Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats . especially those influenced by so-called Orange Book Liberalism, have similarly accepted much of the neo-liberal policy programme but at the same time have emphasised strongly the importance of the relief of poverty and the encouragement of social mobility. Bearing in mind these general elements of Cameronian Conservative and Liberal Democrat ideologies one would have expected that Coalition education policies would incorporate attempts to advance the significance of a quasi-markets within the education system and policies designed to advance equality of opportunity and ,as is indicated below this overall strategy is illustrated most clearly in the expansion of Academies, the introduction of free schools and the Pupil Premium.
| Coalition Education Policies: Some Summary Information
The Coalition Government introduced a wide range of education policies and I can only provide a broad summary of them here . Students may discuss with their teachers the extent to which such information might be incorporated into short examination -length essays. In broad terms Coalition education policies have incorporated the following main elements.
[While the Government has generally defended these policies staunchly especially in the early stages of Coalition both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats would attempt to focus more on policy agreement than policy disagreement but policy disagreements there have certainly been and at the 2013 Liberal Democrat Conference Nick Clegg used his leadership speech to spell out what he considered to be 16 important ways in which the Liberal Democrats had succeeded in modifying Conservative policies . With regard to education policy , according to Nick Clegg , the Liberal Democrats had prevented the bringing back of "O Levels" and the re- introduction of a two-tier examination system for 15-16 year olds, the introduction of profit-making in State Schools and the introduction of new larger child care ratios which although they would have reduced the costs of childcare would also, according to Nick Clegg, have reduced the overall quality of childcare. Click here for Guardian coverage of Nick Clegg's 2013 Liberal Democrat Conference Speech. These Coalition policies have met with substantial criticism and the resultant policy debates have necessitated very careful assessment of detailed evidence especially perhaps in relation to arguments surrounding the effectiveness or otherwise of the Academies programme. The broad criticisms which have been made of Coalition Education Policies are summarised below and you can click here to find more details on the strengths and weaknesses of specific policies in documents. Broad Criticisms Of Coalition Education Policies
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It has also been pointed out that under successive governments some schools have resorted to the tactic of removing mainly disadvantaged students from their school registers[ so-called off -rolling] in order to massage their examination pass rates upwards so as to improve their league table positions by bogus means. These actions also mean that official DfE statistics may understate the real degree of class inequality in educational attainment. For some recent articles on Off Rolling click here and here. These articles refer to the GCSE examinations of 2017 but it is likely that similar tactics were being used before this.
After the 2015 General Election: Towards Increased Selection?
The 2015 General Election saw the demise of the Coalition and the return ofa single party majority Conservative Government under PM David Cameron. It seemed likely that a process of compulsory academisation would be introduced but following opposition from local authorities, teachers' unions and MPs [including some Conservative MPs this proposal was abandoned. [Click here for details from Schools Week] .
Following The UK EU Referendum and the resignation of David Cameron the Conservatives elected Theresa May as new Conservative Prime Minister and Mrs May , supported by new Secretary of State Justine Greening indicated that she favoured an increase in the number of grammar schools, a policy which previous Prime Minister David Cameron had not supported. A Government consultation paper was quickly published in which the Government outlined its broad education plans and aimed to canvass opinion as to how these plans might best be implemented.
The publication of the Government consultation paper has understandably sparked intense interest ; many articles , some of which are statistically complex have already been published and the House Of Commons Select Committee on Education convened a meeting of expert education policy analysts to discuss these issues in detail on November 8th 2016. Click here to access full video coverage of this meeting Also in any case the Government's precise plans will not be known for some time and so we can expect much more information on this topic in the near future.
In the meantime I shall end this section of document for the time being with a summary checklist of arguments which are currently being made for and against increasing the number of grammar schools. I shall update it gradually as more information becomes available .
| Current Arguments For And Against Introduction Of More Grammar Schools: A Summary
These issues will no doubt receive further consideration in the coming weeks and months but I hope that students will find this interim summary useful. Please note that in the second session of the above mentioned Select Committee on Education video the Minister of State for Education Nick Gibb makes a strong concise statement in support of the new Government proposals. Scroll ahead in the video to about 10.55. Arguments in Favour of More Grammar Schools
Arguments Against More Grammar Schools
You may click here for a selection of recent articles and I shall update this section of the document gradually as more information becomes available . |
As we shall now see the educational policies of Conservative, Labour and Coalition Governments may be analvsed using different sociological perspectives. The following links provide some additional information'
Click here to access What is preventing Social Mobility? By Professor Becky Francis and Dr Billy Wong. See Pages 5-8 on unequal starting points, pages 9-16 on limited access of poorer pupils to high performing schools and pages 16-19 on the effects of setting and streaming . April 2017. VERY USEFUL
Click here for article on limited access of poor pupils to good primary schools [April 2017] April 2017
Click here for a detailed article entitled "Mind the gap: tackling social and educational inequality" by Kate Pickett and Laura Vanderbloemen and here for a summary of the article May 2017
In the following essay I shall refer to the above policies in fairly broad terms since there will be insufficient time to discuss the details of each specific policy especially under examination conditions.
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Essay Title: Examine differing sociological approaches to the analysis of the ways in which educational policies may affect the achievements of pupils.
- Introduction
Among the most significant education policies introduced since 1944 have been the introduction of Tripartite Secondary Education in 1944 and its gradual almost total replacement by Comprehensive Secondary Education, the attempts to create a so-called quasi-market in education by the Conservatives 1979-1997 and the continued acceptance of this approach to education policy by subsequent Labour Governments from 1997onwards , the development of policies by successive Conservative and Labour Governments designed to increase the vocational relevance of education, and various programmes such as Sure Start, Education Action Zones, and Excellence in Cities and the Educational Maintenance Allowance designed to increase educational opportunities for disadvantaged pupils.
Under the Coalition Government key new education policies included the reform of the National Curriculum, the modification of GCSE and GCE Advanced Level syllabi, the introduction of the EBacc, , initiatives to reform vocational education, the introduction of the Pupil Premium and the discontinuation of the Educational Maintenance Allowance and the Aim Higher Programme. Perhaps most significant have been the expansion of the Academies Programme and the introduction of Free Schools both of which could be seen as accelerating the process of quasi- marketisation in education which had begun under the Conservative Governments of 1979-99 and continued under Labour Governments of 1997-2010. No post -war Government has attempted to abolish Private Schools and any such attempt may in any case now be illegal under the terms of the 1998 Human Rights Act. I shall concentrate below on differing sociological analyses of these broad policy initiatives.
- Functionalism
It is difficult to find information on Functionalist analyses of specific education policies and so I have attempted here to estimate what Functionalist attitudes to education policies might be given their overall analyses of formal education systems as a whole and so, students ,there are certainly issues in this section which you might like to discuss further with your teachers
Functionalism is based upon a consensus model of society. In summary Functionalists argue that industrial capitalist societies are basically economically efficient, democratic, and meritocratic and operate in the interests of all of their citizens. Functionalists believe that formal education systems too are meritocratic and that they contribute to social stability and economic efficiency via the transmission of appropriate norms and values and useful knowledge and skills and via the effective performance of a role allocation function whereby individuals are eventually allocated to differing employment roles in accordance with their differing talents and skills. However it is important also to remember that although Functionalists claim to support equality of opportunity and meritocracy they also believe that social and economic inequality are desirable and inevitable.
Functionalists claimed that the USA education system was essentially meritocratic despite the possible adverse effects of economic inequality on meritocracy, despite the fact that a sizeable minority of USA schools [currently around 10%] are private schools, despite the fact that there are massive differences in educational expenditure per pupil as between wealthy and poor states and districts and despite the fact that although the USA state school system is formally comprehensive children in wealthy districts have access to better resourced state schools.
Although Functionalists believed even in the 1950s that formal education systems were relatively meritocratic and organised in the interests of individual students and in the interests of society as a whole we may assume that they would welcome any government education policies which improve the transmission of knowledge, skills and appropriate pro-capitalist norms and values and make the formal education systems even more meritocratic.
On this basis they would support policies which improve overall school effectiveness and vocational education initiatives which support the basic ethos of capitalism , improve pupils' job prospects and increase the efficiency of the capitalist system as a whole. It seems likely that Functionalists might support private education and selective secondary education because they believe that this makes for efficient role allocation and , in their view, is not inconsistent with meritocracy and they might support the recent marketisation of education on the grounds that this improves overall school effectiveness and gives disadvantaged pupils a better chance to attend good schools . Since Functionalists are supporters of the competitive capitalist system we may perhaps be justified in assuming that they would support education policies which promote competition between pupils and schools as the best means of promoting efficiency and raising standards within the education system.
Given their positive evaluations of the USA education system as it existed in the 1950s and 1960s it seems unlikely that Functionalists would accept that the current existence of private schools and selective secondary education in the UK results in unfair competition which undermines meritocracy nor that the recent marketisation of education confers unfair advantage on upper and middle class parents and their children which again actually inhibits meritocracy and thereby undermines the educational prospects of disadvantaged children.
- The New Right
The Ideology of the New Right contains to broad elements, Neo-Liberalism and Neo-Conservatism which are to some extent complementary and to some extent contradictory. Essentially a commitment to traditional institutions and values while Neo-Liberalism involves a commitment to the market mechanism and the limited state while Neo-Conservatism involves a commitment to traditional institutions and values.
Conservative Governments of 1979-1997 strengthened the private Education sector via the Assisted Places scheme [which provided grants for talented students of limited means to take up places at private schools] , supported the continued existence of selective state grammar schools and also introduced several new education policies many of which were contained in the 1988 Education Reform Act. They included : the introduction of a National Curriculum; tests for 7, 11 and 14yearolds as well as 16 year olds; increased freedom of choice for parents/pupils to choose their secondary school rather than being allocated almost automatically to their nearest local secondary school; Local Management of Schools whereby head teachers were given greater control over their school budgets; the increased dependence of school funding on school numbers so that more popular schools would attract larger funds and vice versa..
In addition so-called league tables were created on the basis of schools' published examination and truancy rates; there were more frequent school inspections carried out by OFSTED whose reports were published which provided some useful comparative information for parents; the GCSE replaced the GCE and CSE examination in 1988.The Conservatives also introduced a limited number of City Technology Colleges and Specialist schools and a range of policies under the general heading of the New Vocationalism in an attempt to deal with what they saw as the failure of the education system to adequately meet the needs of industry .
Several of of these policies were designed to promote the increased quasi -marketisation of education which, according to its supporters will drive up overall educational standards. Thus it is claimed that quasi-marketisation will restrict the powers of public sector bureaucrats who strive to promote the growth of state-controlled education partly in order to further their own careers and partly because they are subject to excessive influence from powerful teachers unions and leftist intellectuals. Instead under quasi-marketisation more schools are created which are free from public sector bureaucratic control and which can offer a wider educational choice to parents and their children. In turn parents will use their greater freedoms to shun ineffective schools [ which may therefore be subject to closure , or, indeed , academisation] in favour of the more effective schools which will therefore expand thereby improving the overall quality of education to all pupils, including the poorest who., it is claimed are particularly disadvantaged by the currently ineffective education system. Thus it was argued that the process of quasi -marketisation would generate a "parentocracy" whereby individual parents would have far greater individual choice in determining the schools which their children would attend.
Conservatives [and especially perhaps neo-Conservatives] argued that children's education was being blighted as a result of the relative neglect of the teaching of numeracy and literacy skills necessary for secure future employment and for the efficiency of the economy as a whole while ineffective progressive teaching methods, emphases on pupil autonomy and freedom of expression at the expense of traditional respect for teachers' authority, excessive concerns with issues of class, gender, ethnicity and sexuality all linked with dangers of political indoctrination by left-wing teachers were combining to create a crisis in our schools which in the future could potentially undermine the entire social order. Critics rejected these criticisms arguing that overall standards of literacy and numeracy were improving, that most teachers used a sensible mixture of traditional and progressive methods, that it was important for pupils to discuss important contemporary issues and that the overwhelming majority of teachers wished to encourage their students to think for themselves and not to indoctrinate them in any way. This is an issue which you might like to discuss further with your teachers!
Both Neo-Liberals and Neo-Conservatives have tended in practice to support the continued existence of Private Education as is indicated by Conservative Governments' introduction of the Assisted Places Scheme whereby the parents of some talented but socially disadvantaged pupils were to be given state subsidies to contribute to the costs of private education. Conservatives also hoped to increase the scope for selection within the state secondary sector and although it was not politically feasible immediately in the early 1980s to reverse the trend toward comprehensive secondary education the Conservatives were able to safeguard existing grammar schools and gradually to increase selectivity within the state sector via the introduction of new kinds of schools such as City Technology Colleges, Grant -Maintained Schools and Specialist Schools.
New Right theorists also supported the initiatives of the New Vocationalism introduced by the Conservatives and the subsequent similar Labour initiatives in the hope that a more vocationally relevant education would improve pupils employment prospects and improve the prospects for the UK economy as a whole.
In an ideal world these vocationally based courses would enthuse students to adopt more positive attitudes to education in the recognition that what they are learning would help them to improve significantly their future employment prospects.
[It should be noted that Labour Government of 1997-2010 supported several of these Conservative initiatives although they did also introduce important policies such aas the Excellence in Cities Programme, the Education Action Zones , the Educational Maintenance and the Aim Higher Programme all of which were designed to increase equality of educational opportunity. These policies are discussed below in the section on the Social Democratic Perspective ]
As Conservative Secretary of State for Education in the Coalition Government Michael Gove often stated that his overall approach to education policy was based upon a practical search for "what works" rather than upon ideological considerations. He also expressed support for several of the education policies developed by Labour's Schools Minister Lord Andrew Adonis and backed strongly by Prime Minister Tony Blair. However it has been argued that Labour's approach itself reflected some sympathy with New Right thinking and with the New Right-influenced education policies which had been pioneered in the era of Thatcherism. It has also been argued that the influence of New Right thinking on Labour governments was moderated to some extent by their commitment to a rather mild version of social democracy and it might similarly be argued that Coalition education policies have also been influenced heavily by the Conservatives' ongoing commitment to New Right Ideology modified to some , perhaps limited, extent by the mild social liberal ideas of their Liberal Democrat coalition partners.
The Coalition Government has continually emphasised the necessity of raising average educational standards but has noted als o the particular difficulties faced by disadvantaged pupils whose levels of educational attainment are in many cases significantly blow the average as measured. for example, by their performance in GCSE and GCE Advanced level examinations and by statistics on access to Higher Education. The Coalition has argued that it prioritises increases in educational opportunity for disadvantaged students and in this respect it is important to consider the four following Coalition policy initiatives.
- The Pupil Premium
- The Abolition of the EMA
- The Sure Start Programme
- The Increase in Higher Education Tuition Fees.
With regard to these policies critics have argued that although useful the Pupil Premium will be insufficient on its own to significantly reduce inequality of educational opportunity and that the abolition of the EMa , the reduction in the umber of Sure Start Places and the increase in HE tuition fees will serve to reduce equality of opportunity. Against this the Coalition Government argued that their alternative to the EMA was more effective; that in may cases although they did reduce the number of Sure Start centres the intention was to merge some smaller centres into larger ones; and that the total number of students entering HE has actually increased and that the rate of increase for disadvantaged students has been even faster. These issues are discussed further in my more detailed documents on Coalition Education Policy.
The arguments of Mr Gove and his supporters that Coalition education policies were practical. non-ideological measures designed to improve the overall effectiveness of the education system has been applied to the changing of teaching training schemes, the teaching of reading through phonics, the changes to the content of the National Curriculum, the development of more rigorous GCSE and GCE Advanced Level courses to be assessed via examination rather than coursework, the introduction of more challenging school inspections, higher examination pass rates as measurement criteria of school efficiency, measures to foster better discipline and a calmer learning environment, greater emphasis on streaming , banding and setting rather than mixed ability teaching and the development of more effective vocational education policies .
However it has also been claimed that some of these policies were in fact ideologically driven at least to some extent and that the influence of New Right neo-liberalism can be seen especially in the expansion of the Academies Programme, the introduction of the Free Schools programme, the continued support for Private Education and for Grammar Schools [although no new Grammar Schools have been built] and the substantial increase in Higher Education tuition fees.
It may well be the case that in contemporary times these neo-Conservative arguments are advanced rather less forcefully but Mr Gove's critics have argued that he and his supporters have intervened excessively in some aspects of curriculum content to promote neo-Conservative values and that the Govian emphasis on the importance of stricter discipline, school uniforms, prefect and house systems and streaming/ banding and setting at the expense of mixed ability teaching [as well as the already mentioned continued support for Private Schools and Grammar Schools ] would all combine to give a rather more neo-Conservative tone to the school environment.
Critics of of Conservative education policies 1979-97 and of Coalition education policies 2010 -2015 have argued that insofar as they have been influenced by New Right Ideology they have been misguided.It has been argued that private education benefits primarily the children of the rich and comfortably off and inhibits meritocracy; and that it is possible that even if the Assisted Places scheme did increase the chances of upward social mobility of those children who participated in it few truly disadvantaged pupils participated in the scheme and that opportunities for social mobility might have been improved further by targeted spending in the state sector.
It has been argued that it is middle class children who benefit from the existence of Grammar Schools and working class children who are most disadvantaged by the existence of Secondary Modern schools. Of course controversies surrounding the relative merits of comprehensive and selective secondary education have intensified due to the support of new Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May for increasing the number of Grammar Schools.
The critics have also denied that that the accelerated expansion of the quasi market in education[ which began with the Conservative 1988 Education, continued under subsequent Labour Governments and has accelerated as a result of the Coalition's Academies and Free Schools programmes] will drive up educational standards including the educational standards of the poorest.
Thus although in theory these education policies were designed to increase parental choice there could be no overall increase in parental choice in small towns with only one secondary school or in larger towns and cities where the more popular secondary schools were already full and over-subscribed. In these latter cases critics claim the quasi-marketisation of education has actually benefited middle parents and their children disproportionately since it is these middle class parents who are much more likely to be able to use their cultural, economic and social capital to ensure that the oversubscribed effective state schools themselves would actually choose their children thereby indirectly reducing the educational opportunities of more disadvantaged pupils. Consequently the claims that as a result of the growth of quasi -marketisation in education the English education system had been transformed into a great parentocracy where individual parental choice was the main determinant of pupils' allocation to schools has been called into question.
These issues are described in great detail in a study by S. Gerwirtz, S. Ball and R. Bowe entitled Markets, Choice and Equity in Education [1995] and you should consult your textbooks to familiarise yourselves with the details of this very useful study which is relevant to several aspects of the Sociology of Education. [The Haralambos and Holborn textbook Sociology: Themes and Perspectives provides a fairly full summary and you may also click here for further information provided elsewhere on this site.
It is particularly significant also that a recent report by the House of Common Select Committee on Education has concluded that there is currently no conclusive evidence that the Academies and Free Schools programmes have resulted in any improvement in overall educational standards. Also, as has been outlined elsewhere on this site, the continued existence of private schools and grammar schools has been criticised as undermining equality of opportunity.
There have been several criticisms of the policies of the New Vocationalism introduced by Conservative governments between 1979 and 1997. Thus it was claimed at the time that a significant divide was created between academic and vocational courses as pupils following vocational courses such as the CPVE would be made to feel like "second-class citizens" in the mainly academically oriented sixth form and that in any case schools in any case were not suited or resourced at the time for the teaching of business and technology - related courses although it is clear that increasing numbers of well trained teachers of these subjects have subsequently been employed.
It is claimed in relation to training schemes that they aimed to shift the blame for youth unemployment from government economic policy which according to critics was mainly responsible for the growth of mass unemployment in the 1980s onto the teaching profession who were blamed for the failure to teach the skills necessary to secure industrial efficiency. Furthermore it was argued that training schemes were a means of reducing the official unemployment figures in an attempt to sustain government popularity; that little real training was given; that trainees were often discarded rather than offered permanent jobs once their training period was finished as employers opted for the cheaper option of replacing them with another batch of low paid trainees; that the schemes often reinforced traditional gender roles; that the training was at the expense of a more valuable general education and that the purpose of the schemes was often to encourage passivity and acceptance of low wages among young people.
However, supporters of the schemes have argued correctly that some useful training has been given which increased the employability of the trainees concerned. Nevertheless, more generally, it would perhaps be true to say that all post -war governments and not only the Conservative governments of 1979-1997 have given insufficient attention to the needs for industrial training and that this has been one factor which has restricted the long term rate of growth of the UK economy relative to its competitor economies.
Critics have also rejected the neo-Conservative analysis of the defects of the education system. Thus they have argued that most teachers used a sensible mixture of traditional and progressive methods, that it was important for pupils to discuss important contemporary issues and that the overwhelming majority of teachers wished to encourage their students to think for themselves and not to indoctrinate them in any way. Furthermore it has been argued, most notably by Marxists, that a neo-Conservative approach to education is likely to inculcate into pupils exactly the kind of undesirable deference which prepares them to accept with out demur subsequent low paid employment in what Marxists perceive to be an exploitative, unjust, unequal capitalist system. Meanwhile interactionists argue that the streaming, banding and setting favoured by the Coalition compounds the educational difficulties of the more disadvantaged pupils by subjecting them to negative labelling processes which adversely affect their progress.
- Social Democratic Perspective
Social Democracy has provided the main theoretical basis for Labour Party policy. Social democrats have traditionally believed that unregulated capitalism would result in inequality of income, wealth and power and the absence of meritocracy but that higher living standards and greater economic equality can best be achieved via state reform and regulation of the capitalist system leading to the creation of a mixed economy thus rendering the revolutionary abolition of capitalism unnecessary. However in recent years there has been considerable controversy surrounding the extent to which the ideology of New Labour represents a shift away from the principles of social democracy and toward the ideology of the New Right and this controversy has certainly been apparent in analyses of New Labour education policies.
Most Social Democrats have traditionally argued against the existence of Private education and State selective education on the grounds that both of these forms of education undermine equality of opportunity . They would admit that top private schools and state grammar schools may well enable their pupils to reach higher educational standards but point out also that private school education is available primarily to the children of rich or comfortably off parents and also that it is middle class children who have benefited most from the existence of state grammar schools. For these reasons Social Democrats have been strong supporters of Comprehensive Secondary Education which in their view would be most likely to increase equality of educational opportunity and to raise average educational standards.
However in practice Labour Governments have failed to abolish Private Education [and , in any case, attempts to abolish Private Education may now be illegal under the terms of the 1998 Human Rights Act; Labour have also allowed the continued existence of a limited number [currently 164] selective State Grammar Schools ; and Labour have accepted much of the Conservatives "choice and diversity agenda based around the introduction of a quasi market in education via increased support for Specialised Schools, Faith, Schools and City Academies. Whereas some Social Democrats have argued that these latter policies are consistent with Social Democracy and amount to a modernisation of the comprehensive system which can further promote meritocracy others argue that they indicate clearly that Labour has adopted a New Right Education policy agenda which will undermine the prospects for educational meritocracy as upper and middle class parents are able to use their economic, social and cultural capital to secure places at the more successful state schools for their children at the expense of working class children. That is: in the view of critical Social Democrats the criticisms of Conservative New Right education policies apply also to New Labour education policies which are seen as equally influenced by the ideology of the New Right.
Social Democrats have supported the initiatives introduced by Labour such increased nursery provision, reduced class sizes and the Sure Start , Education Action Zones and Excellence in Cities programmes which are clearly designed to target additional resources on poorer children. However many Social Democrats claim also that these policies are insufficient to reduce the massive social class, ethnic and gender inequalities of educational achievement which continue to exist and that the relative educational opportunities of disadvantaged pupils can be increased only via the abolition of private and state selective grammar schools and additional financial resources for the Sure Start Programme and for future programmes replacing the EAZ and EiC programmes and by the rethinking of Labour policies on diversity and choice. Even then broader social and economic and social policies to reduce poverty and inequality will also be necessary because many Social Democrats believe that it may well still be true that as Basil Bernstein stated in the 1970s"Education cannot compensate for society."
Many Social Democrats would support Labour's vocational education initiatives on they grounds that these should increase pupil employability but they might also express critical concerns about these policies. Thus there are concerns that schools will encourage only "unacademic" students [for whom traditional GCSEs and Advanced Levels are seen as inappropriate ] to take these courses; that the courses will be perceived similarly by the students themselves; and that Universities may not accept these qualifications as equivalent to traditional Advanced Levels. Thus the academic-vocational divide which has bedevilled the UK education system for years may remain for the foreseeable future . However the increasing popularity of Two-Year Foundation degrees which combine vocational and academic elements does perhaps offer hope for the future.
In summary while some Social Democrats have argued that on balance Labour's education policies should increase pupils' overall educational achievements by improving average standards, increasing, equality of opportunity and vocational relevance others argue that more fundamental educational reform involving the abolition of Private Education and State Selective Education and increased targeting of resources on disadvantaged pupils at every level of the education system combined with wider social and economic reforms are all necessary if equality of educational opportunity is to be achieved. It is noteworthy that after 13 successive years of Labour government that even though average educational achievements have improved there are still very significant class, gender and ethnic inequalities in educational achievement and ongoing concerns that on average the UK labour force is less skilled than the labour forces of our major competitors.
- Interactionist Perspective
Interactionist sociologists have focused especially on the possible effects of both positive and negative labelling on subsequent pupil achievements. The conclusions of Interactionist studies may be used to suggest that under the tripartite system of secondary education success or failure in the 11+ examination would be likely to have positive and negative labelling effects respectively but that the existence of streaming/banding/setting within Comprehensive schools or even of unofficial ability groupings within nominally mixed ability classes may well mean that the some forms of labelling continue despite the expansion of comprehensivisation .Some more recent studies do suggest that in general negative labelling is nowadays less likely to occur although this conclusion has itself been denied in other recent interactionist studies. Furthermore Labour education spokespersons currently argue that streaming/banding/setting arrangements actually provide better learning environments than does mixed ability teaching.... a view which may interactionists [and others] would not accept.
- Marxist Perspective
Marxists are critical of Conservative and Labour approaches to education policy because both of these approaches are sympathetic to the continuation of the capitalist system which , according to Marxists, inhibits the possibility that education policy can be used to the real advantage of all members of society. In the Marxist view the continuation of capitalism depends upon the availability of workers with different levels of skill ready to play significantly different roles and to accept significantly different levels of income in the capitalist economy. In addition capitalism demands that the education system via the Hidden Curriculum[ and in conjunction with the other agencies of socialisation] ensures that there is broad based ideological support for capitalism. It follows that so long as the capitalist system remains even if the education system operates with a little relative autonomy, social class, ethnic and gender differences in educational achievement and attitudes sympathetic to the continuation of capitalism will remain because they themselves are essential to the continuation of capitalism. According to Marxists even radical social Democrats are unlikely to challenge the capitalist system and therefore unlikely to introduce truly liberating education policies which means that education policies will continue to have an important role to play in the reproduction of capitalist class structures. In the Marxist View only the abolition of capitalist can lead to a truly liberating education for all. Of course the entire Marxist analysis of capitalist societies and their education systems can be criticised from all of the other perspectives mentioned in this essay. Perhaps this is a little exercise which you would like to undertake for yourselves.
- Feminist Perspective
It is clear that in the last twenty or so years the educational achievements of female students have improved rapidly relative to those of males. This is due partly [but not entirely] to education policies in that there is now greater emphasis in schools on equal opportunities which is reflected , for example, in new teaching materials, careers advice and the introduction of the national curriculum which made sciences compulsory for all students up to the age of 16. All Feminists are no doubt pleased with these developments but while Liberal feminists are broadly supportive of gradualism Marxist/Socialist Feminists and Black Feminists would note the disappointing educational achievements of working class and some ethnic minority girls while Radical Feminists would criticise the continued existence of a Hidden Curriculum which ignores some of the concerns of radical feminism. Thus Marxist/Socialist Feminists would argue that only the abolition of capitalism, possibly via revolutionary means, will result in real equality of educational opportunity for males and females in all social classes and all ethnic groups while Radical Feminists argue that only the ending of Patriarchy in society will create the conditions for equality of educational opportunity.
- Concluding Assignment.
In this essay I have focussed upon 5 broad policy areas and 6 Sociological Perspectives. I hope that after some further reading and class discussion you will be able to complete the following table indicating the differing sociological views in each broad policy area.
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Appendix
Click here for Stephen Machin article [LSE]
Click here for Stephen Machin article Guardian
Click here for Guardian letter
Click here and here and here for Sutton Trust items