Marketisation, Parentocracy and School Choice
Marketisation is the introduction of business-style, market principles into the state education system, applying ideas such as competition, consumer choice and performance measurement to schools, largely through reforms following the Education Reform Act 1988.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Define marketisation as the application of market principles, competition, consumer choice and published performance data, to state schools, and link its origin to the Education Reform Act 1988.
- Define parentocracy as a system in which parental choice, informed by data such as league tables, is meant to drive up standards through competition between schools.
- Explain formula funding: schools are funded largely according to the number of pupils they attract, giving schools a direct financial incentive to be an attractive, oversubscribed choice.
- Apply Ball, Bowe and Gewirtz's research distinguishing skilled choosers, typically confident, well-resourced, middle-class parents who can navigate the admissions system and secure places at popular schools, from disconnected choosers, who have less time, confidence or cultural capital to do the same.
- Apply the concept of cream-skimming: popular, oversubscribed schools can, in practice, select the pupils who will help their results and reputation, while less popular schools are left with a less advantaged intake and fewer resources, a spiral sociologists sometimes call the making of sink schools.
- For a 12-mark discuss question, weigh the argument that competition and choice raise standards for all against the argument that marketisation benefits already-advantaged families and schools most, then reach a conclusion.
Worked example
Explain, using sociological research, why marketisation might benefit middle-class families more than working-class families.
- Identify the mechanism marketisation relies on: parents choosing between competing schools, informed by published information such as league tables.
- Apply Ball, Bowe and Gewirtz's distinction: skilled choosers, often middle-class parents with more time, confidence and cultural capital, are better able to research schools, understand admissions criteria and appeal decisions.
- Contrast this with disconnected choosers, who may have less time, confidence or knowledge of the system to compete for places at the most popular schools.
- Explain the consequence for schools: popular schools can effectively select the pupils that best support their results, described as cream-skimming, while less popular schools receive a less advantaged intake and, under formula funding, less money.
- State the overall effect: rather than raising standards equally for everyone, marketisation can widen the gap between successful and struggling schools, benefiting families who are already better placed to work the system.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1What does marketisation mean in the context of education?Show answer
Answer: Applying market principles, such as competition between schools, parental choice and performance data, to the state education system.
Q2What is meant by formula funding?Show answer
Answer: A system in which a school's funding is largely determined by the number of pupils it enrols, giving schools a financial incentive to attract more pupils.
Q3What is a league table, in this context?Show answer
Answer: A published ranking of schools based on measures such as exam results, intended to inform parental choice.
Q4Who researched the difference between skilled choosers and disconnected choosers in the education market?Show answer
Answer: Ball, Bowe and Gewirtz.
Q5What is cream-skimming?Show answer
Answer: When a popular, oversubscribed school is able to effectively select the pupils most likely to help its results and reputation, leaving less advantaged pupils concentrated in less popular schools.
Q6What is parentocracy?Show answer
Answer: A system in which parental choice, rather than a fixed catchment area, is meant to determine which school a child attends.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE Sociology exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Explain two features of marketisation in the state education system.
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 4 available
Explain, using sociological research, how marketisation can widen inequality between schools.
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 6 available
Discuss the view that marketisation policies have raised standards in education for all pupils. (12 marks)
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
Nothing ticked yet - 12 available
See real GCSE Sociology past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
Free printable worksheet
Want more practice on paper? Download the marketisation, parentocracy and school choice worksheet pack - 7 pages of exam-style questions with a full mark scheme. One email opens every download in this browser for 14 days - no account, no card. Print it for personal and classroom use.
Next topics
Not quite what you needed?
Tell us what is missing on marketisation, parentocracy and school choice, or which topic to write up next. Every request is read, and we reply to every one.
Build a full practice pack.
This topic is one of hundreds in the library - pick the ones a student needs and generate a printable PDF in minutes.