Educational Policies

Educational policies sociology

When exploring educational policies, sociologists are intrigued by four specific areas, including government educational policy, educational equality, the privatisation of education and the marketisation of education. The upcoming sections will explore these topics in greater detail.

What is educational policy?

As this explanation will show, different governments prioritise different educational areas when they gain power.

Fig. 1 - Educational policies have an impact on children's schools regardless of ethnicity, gender or class.

Education policy analysis

The sociological examination of educational policies interrogates the impact of initiatives brought in by government or non-government parties for the overall improvement in access to (and quality of) education.

British educationalists are mainly concerned with the impact of selection, marketisation, privatisation, and globalisation policies. They investigate and theorise policies' impact on schools, alternative educational provisions such as Pupil Referral Units (PRUs), communities, social groups, and, most importantly, the pupils themselves.

There are different sociological explanations for the impact of educational policies on educational standards, as well as differential access and achievement by social group, such as ethnicity, gender and/or class.

Government education policy

Government policies implement changes within educational institutions; from minor, barely noticeable changes to major overhauls, our educational experience is significantly affected by government decisions.

Examples of government policies

• The Tripartite System (1944): this change introduced the 11+, grammar schools, technical schools, and secondary moderns.

• New Vocationalism (1976): introduced more vocational courses to tackle unemployment.
• The Education Reform Act (1988): introduced the national curriculum, league tables, and standardised testing.

Contemporary government education policies

Modern-day government educational policies are intrigued by furthering multicultural education. The focus of multicultural education was to change the environment of the school in order to reflect the array of diverse identities found in society.

1997: New Labour education policies

A key type of educational policy to be aware of are those introduced in 1997.

Tony Blair entered government with the compelling cries of "education, education, education". The introduction of Blair signalled the end of conservative governance. The New Labour education policies of 1997 sought to raise standards, increase diversity and choice within the British education system.

One way in which these education policies attempted to raise standards was by reducing class sizes.

New Labour also notably introduced one hour of reading and numeracy. This was shown overtime to raise the level of both maths and English pass rates.

Privatisation of education

The privatisation of services refers to their transfer from being owned by the state to being owned by private companies. This has been a common element of educational reform in the UK.

Types of privatisation

Ball and Youdell (2007) identified two types of privatisation of education.

Exogenous privatisation

Exogenous privatisation is privatisation from outside the education system. It involves companies profiting from shaping and transforming the education system in particular ways. Perhaps the most identifiable example of this is the use of exam boards (such as Edexcel, which is owned by Pearson).

Endogenous privatisation

Endogenous privatisation is privatisation from within the education system. This means that schools tend to operate more like private businesses. Common practices that such schools take on include maximising profits, performance targets for teachers and marketing (or advertising).

Advantages and disadvantages of privatisation

Educational equality

Educational equality refers to students having equal access to education regardless of socio-structural aspects, such as ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic background.

Across the globe and within nations, children do not have equal access to education. Poverty is the most common cause that prevents children from going to school, but other reasons include political instability, natural disasters and disabilities.

Policy for educational equality

Governments have attempted to intervene and give everyone access to education through various policies. Let's take a look at some prominent examples of these policies.

The comprehensive system

The comprehensive system was established in the 1960s as criticism arose against the inequalities of the tripartite system. These three types of schools would be combined into a singular school, called a comprehensive school, all of which were of equal status and offered the same opportunities for learning and success.

The comprehensive system removed the structural barrier of an entrance exam and gave all students the opportunity to learn in a mixed-ability grouping system. While this policy was implemented with the aim to reduce the achievement gap between social classes, it unfortunately did not succeed in doing so (achievement across all social classes increased, but the gap between lower-class and middle-class attainment did not close).

Compensatory education policies

Compensatory education policies were mostly advocated for by the Labour Party. Examples of these policies include:

• Sure Start programmes began the practice of integrating home life into children's learning. This included financial assistance measures, home visits and inviting students' parents to occasionally attend educational centres with their children.

• Educational Action Zones were set up in deprived urban areas where educational achievement was generally quite low. A group of school representatives, parents, local businesses and some government representatives were tasked with using £1 million to improve educational attendance and achievement in their respective zones.

The marketisation of education

The marketisation of education is an educational policy trend through which schools are encouraged to compete against one another and act like private businesses.

Fig. 2 - Does the marketisation of education really help students?

Education Reform Act (1988)

The marketisation of education in the UK involved the introduction of various initiatives, most of which took place through the Education Reform Act of 1988. Let's explore some examples of these initiatives.

The National Curriculum

The National Curriculum was introduced with the aim to formalise educational standards and, therefore, to standardise testing as well. It outlines the topics that need to be covered across all subjects, and in what order.

League tables

League tables were introduced in 1992 by the Conservative government. This was done as a means to publicise which schools were performing well in their outputs. As would be expected, league tables created a sense of competition between schools, deeming certain outputs "underperforming" and urging parents to send their children to only the best schools.

Ofsted

Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills. This faction of the government was established in order to improve educational standards across the entirety of the UK. Schools were to be evaluated by Ofsted workers every four years, and rated on the following scale:

1. Outstanding
2. Good
3. Requires improvement
4. Inadequate

Impacts of the marketisation of education

Changes to the types of schools available have diversified educational options and made schools more inclined to produce better exam results from their students. However, Stephen Ball argues that meritocracy is a myth - students do not always benefit from their own abilities. For example, he points out that a parent's choices or access to information can contribute to reproducing inequality in their children's lives.

There are also worries about whether teachers are more inclined to "teach the test" - teaching students to achieve the best results in exams - rather than properly teaching them to understand the subject.

Another often overlooked criticism is that schools take in students selectively, often opting for the smartest children within a cohort. This can greatly disadvantage students who may already be struggling with their education.

Impact of globalisation on educational policy

The process of globalisation has impacted our lives in almost every way. But what is its impact on educational policy?

Many sociologists have observed that the increased interconnectedness of different parts of the world means that competition between schools now also transcends national borders. This impacts marketisation and privatisation processes that schools may implement in order to increase the outputs of their educational cohort.

Another key change in educational policy may involve adjustments to school curriculaGlobalisation has led to the development of new types of jobs, such as interpreters and market research analysts, which also calls for new types of training in schools.