The [pre-release information](https://filestore.aqa.org.uk/content/summer-2022/AQA-7192-AI-22.PDF) for Paper 1 has selected the broad topic of education policies as the one which students will DEFINITELY be tested on…
the significance of educational policies, including problems of selection, marketisation and privatisation, and policies to achieve greater equality of opportunity or outcome, for an understanding of the structure, role, impact and experience of and access to education; the impact of globalisation on educational policy’.
The problem is, this is very broad topic, probably best further broken down into a number of separate bullet points:
There are FOUR broad types of policy:
- selection policies
- marketisation policies
- privatisation policies
- policies to achieve greater equality of opportunity or outcome,
You need to be able to consider all of the above policies have affected the social structure and other institutions, the way in which (different types of) student experience school, and how they have affected equality of access to education, and educational outcomes (who gets what results.
In addition to all of the above you also need to be able to discuss and evaluate the impact of globalisation on educational policy!
Phew!
NB I don’t think there are any quick fixes with this topic area, it’s just going to be a hard grind of revision trying to cover all the material!
Where I covered these topics on ReviseSociology.com
NB the exam board has been asking students to focus on policies ‘since 1988 for several years’ so I think it’s reasonable to expect the same
- Every student should know in depth the 1988 Education Reform Act – which introduced Marketisation.
- New Labour’s policies carried on with Marketisation (choice) and introduced more policies to do with equality of opportunity
- The Coalition’s Policies included Free Schools (more choice) and the Pupil Premium – the later an attempt at
- Selection Policies include the tripartite system from the 1940s, but the linked post in this bullet point covers more recent selection policies and concepts such as ‘selection by mortgage’
- Privatisation polices come in two ‘broad types’ – endogenous and exogenous, covered in this linked post.
- Globalisation and Education is covered here
You will find more links to posts on education policies on my sociology of education page.
Good luck with the 2022 exams and happy revising!
