AQA AS Sociology: Unit 2 Education with Research Methods - Social Democratic and New Right perspectives

Social Democratic
1. Based on political ideologies
  1. More left wing
    1. In favour of greater equality and greater state intervention in the economy
  2. Influenced Labour governments of the 1960's and 1970's
2. Perspectives on education
  1. Governments should play a major role in providing welfare through the state
    1. In order to promote the well-being of members of society
    2. Society produces inequality of income and wealth
      1. Creating inequalities of opportunity
        Those from advantaged background tend to do better in the education system
        The role of the state should be to make opportunity more equal
        Society should be more meritocratic
        Where success or failure in education and labour market are based on effort and ability
  2. Opposed the Tripartite system
    1. Where pupils went to one of three schools
      1. Grammar schools = provided academic education for those who passed the 11+ exam
        These were selective, taking only higher ability pupils
        Social democrats believe this is a divisive system
        As most of these pupils were middle class
      2. Secondary modern schools = more vocational focused education
        Working class backgrounds
      3. Technical schools = for those with technical ability (e.g. science, I.T.)
3. Social democratic policies
  1. Labour governments of the 1960's and 1970's
    1. Partly replaced the tripartite system with comprehensive schools
      1. All pupils attended as the intention was:
        To get ride of class divisions between different types of schools
        To create more equal opportunities
        To encourage economic growth, to ensure talent was not being wasted, by sending talented pupils to secondary modern schools where skills would not develop fully
  2. Also worked to reduce inequalities through taxation and welfare policies
    1. Rich were more heavily taxed than others (progressive taxation)
    2. Welfare was provided to the less well-off so they did not live in poverty
New Right
1. Also known as neo-liberals or market liberals
2. More right-wing
  1. In favour of competition and free markets
3. Perspectives on education
  1. Private enterprise, based on competition between businesses
    1. Most efficient system for running any service
  2. State service tend to be inefficient, because producers have no incentive to work
    1. No competition
  3. No customers paying to state education, it is then unresponsive to customers
  4. Competition is essential to raising standards, which is then vital to the UK producing highly educated adults
    1. Necessary to compete in the global economy
  5. The main focus of education should be training of the workforce
    1. This then requires a new emphasis on vocational education
4. New Right policies
  1. Influenced policies of Conservative governments
    1. Margaret Thatcher - Prime Minister (1979 - 1990)
    2. John Major - Prime Minister (1990 - 1997)
  2. Introduced market forces and competition between educational institutions
    1. Schools competed for pupils. Unpopular schools lost money/funding
  3. Greater choice with new types of schools
    1. E.G. Grant maintained schools where funded directly by the government
  4. Designed National Curriculum, league tables, frequent inspections and regular testing
    1. Designed to drive up standards in order to make the UK more economically competitive

Next up

AQA AS Sociology: Unit 2 Education with Research Methods - Social Democratic and New Right perspectives

Description

Resource summary

Similar

	Created by Matthew Seddon about 9 years ago