Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Neoliberalism and New
Right Theory of
Education
- Schools should become more like
businesses, treating parents and
students like consumers
- The New Right
- People are best left to meet
their own needs
- Functionalist Similarities
- People are more talented than others
- Both favour an education system based on meritocracy and
helps to increase competition whilst preparing young people
for work.
- Both believe the education should
socialise pupils into shared values
and instill a national identity
- The education system is
failing because it is run
by the state.
- The lower standards are due to the
education system being inefficient and
unresponsive because it doesn't need
to answer to parents, pupils and local
people/issues.
- This results in a less prosperous economy and a
less qualified workforce
- The solution is to create an 'education market' to
increase competition between schools. This increases
efficiency and the ability to meet the needs of pupils,
parents and employers
- John Chubb and Terry Moe (1990): Consumer Choice
- State run education has failed in US because
- Not created equal opportunity
- Fails to produce pupils wth the
skills needed to benefit the
economy
- Private schools get better results
because they are answerable to
paying customers - Parents
- Pupils from low-income families do
around 5% better in private schools.
- An education market would put control
with the parents. The consumers would
shape schools to meet requirements
that the local economy needs.
Improving efficiency and quality.
- Schools would have to compete for
parent's business by improving their
product.
- Two Roles for State
- Imposing a framework for
schools to compete through
Ousted inspections and
league tables that allow
parents to make a decision
between school choices.
- A shared culture is transmitted
through the National Curriculum.
Guaranteeing socialisation into a
single cultural heritage.
- Overall, the education system should
affirm the National Identity. Britain's
positive aspects should be emphasised
with pupils integrated into a single set of
traditions and values.
- Evaluation Points
- Gewirtz (1995) and Ball (1994) suggest that
competition in the education system benefits
middle-class people who can use cultural and
economic capital to access better schools
- Social inequality and inadequate
funding is the real reason for low
standards
- Contradiction between parental choice
and national curriculum.