EDUCATION AND TRAINING

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

SKILLS-BASED SOCIOLOGY Series Editors: Tim Heaton and Tony Lawson The Skills-Based Sociology series is designed to cover the core skills for Sociology A level (and equivalent courses) and to bring students up to date with recent sociological thought in key topic areas. Students are given the opportunity to develop their skills through exercises which they can carry out by themselves or in groups, as well as given practice in answering exam questions. The series emphasises contemporary developments in sociological knowledge, with a critical focus on recent social theories such as postmodernism and the New Right. Published EDUCATION AND TRAINING Tim Heaton and Tony Lawson Forthcoming THEORY AND METHODS Mel Churton CRIME AND DEVIANCE Tim Heaton and Tony Lawson MASS MEDIA Marsha Jones and Emma Jones STRATIFICATION AND DIFFERENTIATION Mark Kirby HEALTH AND ILLNESS Michael Senior with Bruce Viveash Further titles in preparation Series Standing Order If you would like to receive future titles in this series as they are published, you can make use of our standing order facility. To place a standing order please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address and the name of the series. Please state with which title you wish to begin your standing order. (If you live outside the UK we may not have the rights for your area, in which case we will forward your order to the publisher concerned.) Standing Order Service, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG21 6XS, England

EDUCATION AND TRAINING Tim Heaton and Tony Lawson Palgrave micmillan

* Tim Heaton and Tony Lawson 1996 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court London Road, W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Published by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin's Press, LCC and of Palgrave Macmillan Macmillan is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. PALGRAVE ISBN 978-0-333-64612-0 ISBN 978-1-349-13883-8 (ebook) 10.1007/978-1-349-13883-8 DOI This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 Ltd.

To Sarah Andrew and the sociology students of King Edward VII Upper School, Melton Mowbray To Liz Clarke: much loved and much missed in Leicester

Contents Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Introduction The philosophy behind the book Subject content ix 1 1 2 Chapter 2: Educational Policy and Systems in Britain: the background to changes in the 1980s and 1990s Important principles and concepts of the education system 4 Early educational policies 5 The comprehensive system- the mid 1960s to the present day 6 Private schools 9 Developments in educational thinking and policy since 1976 11 Chapter 3: Changes in Educational Policy and Systems in Britain in the 1980s and 1990s 17 Changes in examinations and assessment 17 New vocationalism 22 Exam question and student answers 27 The 1988 Education Reform Act 33 Changes to the national curriculum and assessment - the Dearing Report 41 The expansion of education and training for 16-19 year olds 51 The expansion of higher education 54 The privatisation of state schools 59 Structured exam questions 62 Chapter 4: Explaining Class Differences in Educational Achievement 65 Evidence of class differences in educational achievement 65 Explanations of class differences in educational achievement 67 Government educational policy and class inequalities in educational attainment 84 The death of class? 84 Exam questions and student answers 86 Structured exam questions 93 3 Contents vii

Chapter 5: Explaining Gender Differences in Educational Achievement 96 Evidence of gender differences in educational achievement 97 Higher education 99 Explanations of gender differences in educational achievement and subject choice 100 Females - the educational achievers 115 Exam question and student's answer 118 Structured exam question 121 Chapter 6: Explaining Ethnic Differences in Educational Achievement 122 Evidence of ethnic differences in educational achievement 123 Explanations of ethnic differences in educational achievement 126 The interaction of gender and ethnicity 136 Ethnicity and educational policy 138 The interrelationship between social class, gender and ethnicity 141 Structured exam question 141 Chapter 7: Functionalist Explanations of the Role of Education and Training 146 The socialisation role 147 The allocation role 148 The vocational training role 151 Chapter 8: Conflict Explanations of the Role of Education and Training 154 The socialisation role 155 The allocation role 163 The vocational training role 166 Exam question and student answers 170 Structured exam question 172 References 173 Author Index 186 Subject Index 189 viii Contents

Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the following for granting us permission to reproduce extracts, figures and tables: Philip Allan Publishers Ltd, Guardian Newspapers Ltd, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, The Independent Newspaper Publishing plc, the Institute of Employment Studies, Macmillan Press Ltd, the National Extension College, National Foundation for Educational Research, Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd, Olympus Books UK, Penguin Books Ltd, Polity Press/NCC Blackwell, Taylor & Francis Group Ltd, Stanley Thomes Publishers Ltd and Times Newspapers Ltd. We are also grateful to the Associated Examining Board (AEB) for allowing us to use questions from past A Level examination papers. All answers and hints on answers are the sole responsibility of the authors and have not been provided or approved by the AEB. Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright-holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangement at the first opportunity. The authors are most grateful to Frances Arnold, Catherine Gray and Keith Pavey for their editorial help. Acknowledgements ix