Reviews for Making Sense of Education Policy Studies in the Sociology and Politics of Education

The average rating for Making Sense of Education Policy Studies in the Sociology and Politics of Education based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-10-18 00:00:00 Jeremy Diamond Making Sense of Education Policy was published in 2002 and so can fairly be described as out of date. What it does provide is an excellent critique of the changing education environment through the 1990s. Using sociologic techniques - needlessly technical but understandable - Whitty places particular emphasis on the increasing "marketisation" of education particularly in Britain, which he explains has taken the policies further than any other country and to a lesser extent the United States, New Zeeland and Australia. This is the idea that schools should be more responsible for their own affairs free from government interference and that parents should have increased power to choose between different education providers. This market driven approach was expected to raise the quality of education and student achievement. The perceived "marketisation" of education is explained to be largely rhetoric. The introduction of the national curriculum under the Conservative administration curtailed the freedom of educators while other reforms claimed to increase it. The New Labour government has largely followed this and has in some cases strengthened the hand of central government. The idea that liberalising the system would lead to a variety of education providers has not lived up to expectations, most changes to the education structure such as academies and specialisation schools have been provided by the government with limited involvement from the private sector. Whitty provides extensive evidence showing that while there has been some increase the organizational skills of schools this has not translated into any significant increase in grades. On the contrary the most disadvantaged in society have been damaged by the reforms as they are less able to gain entry to good schools. Furthermore as schools are now to a limited extent able to choose students this is reinforced creating a segregated education system. Despite all the negativity Whitty does not believe the system to be irreparably flawed. Simple changes such as a less prescriptive national curriculum and an increased share of resources being directed towards schools with a large fraction of disadvantaged students would do a lot of good. As would a change in the school assessment formula at present this does not take into account the ability of a school to add to the achievements of its pupils. For instance a school with a large intake of D grade students could progress to become B grade but this school would be over shadowed by any school achieving As. This has parallels with universities, Oxford comes high in the rankings but this is to be expected since it restricts entry to high quality students in the first place. Perhaps the most significant message to emanate from the book is that no matter how good the education system of a country is some students will still perform poorly. This is because attainment is based on more than just schooling. Housing, material wealth, mental and physical health all play a role as does parental involvement. Educational and political leaders should thus work with other sections of society to ensure that every student reaches their potential.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-03-28 00:00:00 Marsha Kelly Placing a second copy of the same book does not change the fact that it was terrible. See my first review for more information on this scholarly farce.