Education Policy: Selection, Marketisation and Privatisation
Education policy covers the major government interventions that have reshaped English education, and the sociological perspectives used to evaluate their effects, especially on inequality. Selection refers to sorting pupils into different types of school or programme by ability, most visibly the tripartite system after the 1944 Education Act and the grammar/secondary modern divide it created; comprehensive education later aimed to end this by educating pupils of all abilities in the same school. Marketisation, associated with reforms from the late 1980s onwards, introduced competition between schools through parental choice, published league tables and funding tied to pupil numbers, on the New Right assumption that competition drives up standards. Ball, together with Gewirtz and Bowe, researched how marketisation actually operates in practice, distinguishing 'privileged-skilled choosers', typically confident middle-class parents able to navigate school choice systems and use cultural and social capital to secure places, from 'disconnected-local choosers', typically working-class parents with less time, confidence or capital to compete, meaning parental choice benefits families unequally rather than levelling the field. Privatisation describes the increasing involvement of private companies in running or supplying services to state schools, which Marxists argue extends the correspondence principle by allowing capitalist interests to directly shape what and how pupils are taught.
Before you start
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Method
- Organise policy chronologically and by type: selection (tripartite, grammar schools), comprehensivisation (ending selection), marketisation (choice, competition, league tables), and privatisation (private-sector involvement), since questions often ask you to evaluate one specific type of policy.
- Explain marketisation's underlying New Right logic precisely: competition between schools for pupils and funding is assumed to force weaker schools to improve or close, raising standards overall, mirroring how competition is assumed to work between businesses.
- Use Ball, Gewirtz and Bowe's research on parentocracy accurately: their study distinguishes privileged-skilled choosers, who use time, confidence, transport and cultural capital to secure places at better schools, from disconnected-local choosers, who lack these resources and are more likely to end up at their nearest school regardless of its quality.
- Draw the direct evaluative conclusion from Ball, Gewirtz and Bowe's finding: because choosing a school itself requires resources unevenly distributed by class, marketisation can widen rather than narrow class inequality in education, contradicting its stated aim.
- Explain privatisation and connect it to Marxist theory: private company involvement in running schools or supplying services is read by Marxists as evidence that capitalist interests increasingly shape education directly, extending the correspondence principle into policy itself.
- When the item names a specific policy or mechanism (league tables, academies, free schools, catchment areas), identify the perspective it was designed from (functionalist, New Right, Marxist) and the concept it illustrates before evaluating its actual effect.
- Evaluate every policy on both its intended function and its actual, evidenced effect, since the mark scheme rewards noticing the gap between a policy's stated aim (raising standards for all) and its unequal outcome in practice.
- For a 20-mark essay, use the item's specific policy example to structure your paragraphs, rather than writing a general history of education policy that does not engage with the item.
Worked example
Item A: Since school performance tables were introduced, some schools have become oversubscribed and able to select from a large pool of applicants, while others, often in poorer areas, have struggled to attract pupils. Parents who could afford to move house into the catchment area of a popular school did so, while other parents applied only to their nearest school. Applying material from Item A and your knowledge, analyse two ways marketisation policies might increase inequality in education. (10 marks)
- Identify the two mechanisms in the item: oversubscribed schools able to select from applicants, and parents moving house into a catchment area versus applying only locally.
- Build the first way from the item using Ball, Gewirtz and Bowe: oversubscribed schools effectively becoming able to choose their intake, rather than parents freely choosing schools, favours pupils whose parents present well in the application process, disadvantaging less confident or less resourced families.
- Build the second way from the item using the privileged-skilled versus disconnected-local chooser distinction: moving house into a catchment area requires financial resources only some families have, so what looks like equal parental choice actually reproduces existing class inequality in access to good schools.
- Add development: because performance tables reward oversubscribed schools' results and can further disadvantage struggling schools by reducing their funding as pupil numbers fall, the item shows how a policy intended to raise standards for all can instead widen the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged schools and families.
- Check both points are drawn directly from the item's two examples rather than a general account of marketisation.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1What was the tripartite system and what type of policy does it represent?Show answer
Answer: A system, following the 1944 Education Act, that selected pupils by ability (via the 11-plus) into grammar, secondary modern or technical schools. It represents a selection policy.
Q2What is marketisation in education policy?Show answer
Answer: The introduction of competition between schools, through mechanisms such as parental choice, published performance tables and funding linked to pupil numbers, based on the assumption that competition raises standards.
Q3Explain the difference between 'privileged-skilled choosers' and 'disconnected-local choosers' in Ball, Gewirtz and Bowe's research.Show answer
Answer: Privileged-skilled choosers are typically confident, resourced middle-class parents who can navigate school choice systems and use cultural and social capital to secure a place at a preferred school; disconnected-local choosers typically lack the time, confidence or resources to do so and tend to apply only to their nearest school.
Q4What is meant by privatisation in education policy?Show answer
Answer: The increasing involvement of private companies in running schools or supplying services to the state education system.
Q5Why do Marxists link privatisation to the correspondence principle?Show answer
Answer: Because it allows capitalist, profit-driven interests to directly shape what and how pupils are taught, extending the way schooling already mirrors and serves the needs of the capitalist economy.
Q6Give one intended benefit of marketisation and one unintended consequence.Show answer
Answer: Intended benefit: competition between schools was meant to raise standards for all pupils as failing schools improve or close. Unintended consequence: because choosing a school itself requires resources unevenly distributed by class, marketisation can widen rather than narrow inequality between families.
Q7Explain why performance tables might disadvantage a school in a poorer area even if it is improving.Show answer
Answer: Because performance tables are usually based on raw exam results rather than the progress pupils make, a school starting from a lower baseline can appear to be underperforming, discouraging applications and reducing its funding even while it is genuinely improving.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a A Level Sociology exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Outline two features of marketisation policies in education.
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Item B: A local newspaper investigation found that some popular schools required parents to attend an open evening and submit a supporting reference from a place of worship as part of their application, while parents applying to the least popular local school faced no such requirements. Applying material from Item B, analyse two ways school choice policies can disadvantage some families more than others. (10 marks)
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Item C: Government figures showed that, several years after school choice policies were expanded, pupils eligible for free school meals were significantly less likely than other pupils to attend the highest-performing school in their local area, even when that school was their nearest option. Interviews with parents found that some described feeling unable to compete with other families for a place, citing lack of time and unfamiliarity with the application process. Applying material from Item C and your knowledge, evaluate the view that marketisation policies have increased equality of opportunity in education. (20 marks)
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See real A Level Sociology past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
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