Roles, Rights, and Responsibilities in UK Education

Tensions and Inequalities

H. McQueen

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781137398000
• eBook ISBN: 9781137390240
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Comparative Education

Top scholars systematically explore roles, rights, and responsibilities of major participants in UK education: the government, the educators, the learners, and the parents. They investigate the inequalities produced by their current arrangement and look into how changing these arrangements might lead to different outcomes for all involved.

Chapter 1

Introduction

Preface

Chris Husbands, Director and Professor of Education Policy, Institute of Education, London

Around the world, governments are reforming their education systems. There is almost no education system I know of which is not in a state of rapid, often convulsive change. Across the world, education reform is increasingly seen as the critical policy intervention which will drive twenty-first-century economic and social success. “You have”, said the OECD’s Andreas Schleicher to the BBC, “two choices. You can go into the race to the bottom with China, lowering wages for low-skill jobs. Or you can try to win in innovation and competitiveness” (quoted in Coughlan, 2013). There are common themes in many reform programmes. The influential Finnish commentator Pasi Sahlberg identifies a ‘global education reform movement’ —GERM—­characterised by standardisation, an increasing focus on literacy and numeracy, an emphasis on low-risk ways to reach learning goals, the use of corporate management models as drivers of change, and the adoption of test-based accountability (see, e.g., Sahlberg, 2011), although in practice reform programmes work themselves out in distinctive ways in different cultural and political contexts.

One of the things reform programmes do, wherever they are and however they work out, is shift not only the roles, rights and responsibilities of key actors in education—parents and carers, school principals and teachers, governments and policy makers, learners and ­students—but also assumptions about rights and responsibilities. ­Policies which emphasise the importance of parental choice, for example, bring assumptions about the sorts of behaviours and engagements with education which ‘good’ parents are expected to demonstrate. In South Korea, four-fifths of parents pay for private tuition for their children. There are striking figures from the United States; in the early 1970s, the 20 per cent of parents with the highest incomes spent $2,700 more each year on goods and services aimed at enriching the experiences of their children (at 2008 prices) than bottom-quintile-income parents. By 2006, the corresponding inflation-adjusted difference in enrichment spending was $7,500, spent on activities such as music lessons, travel and summer camps, which could explain the differences in knowledge that are predictors of reading skills in middle and high school learners (Duncan and Murnane, 2011).

As the discussions in this book demonstrate, questions about roles, rights and responsibilities in education are both contested and far from new. Every assertion of a right—for example, school or teacher autonomy, parental choice or government ­initiative—involves a claim not only about authority but also about, potentially, trespass on the autonomy of others; it turns out that education is a crowded territory in which different actors trip over each other or bump into each other as they try to discharge their roles. It calls to mind Gore Vidal’s famously acid assertion that ‘it is not enough to succeed—others must fail’. Ideally, of course, every assertion of a right carries a corresponding responsibility, though it is not always apparent that it does. Roles are enacted against a competing swirl of claims to rights and either the discharge of or shirking from responsibilities.

We are living through extraordinarily rapid change in the relationships between rights and responsibilities, which means that roles are changing commensurately fast. Education, of course, is both a public good—the process by which any society socialises the next ­generation—and a positional good—the means by which some individuals acquire the means to succeed. For a century and a half, the assumption has been that because education is a public good, it should be publicly funded, and that the provision of education—the provision of schooling, of the infrastructure for higher education, of teacher education—is a core responsibility of government. Just as governments increase their expectations of the outcomes of education and drive their education systems ever harder, so they are looking for more diverse sources of funding. Education markets are developing rapidly, shifting yet again assumptions about rights and responsibilities. This book explores questions of rights and responsibilities and of the roles education actors assume in different education settings, under different assumptions and at times of rapid change. The chapters that follow are a reminder of just how complex and fascinating the relationships between rights, responsibilities and roles are.

Why This Book?

I have been learning, teaching, or doing both at the same time for as long as I can remember—so more than 50 years. Some of that time was spent in less formal teaching and learning, either as a parent or in jobs that were not directly related to education. The vast majority was spent studying or helping others to learn. Through teaching, tutoring and researching in schools, colleges and universities, I have sought, unintentionally absorbed and questioned information about the education system and its effect on individuals and society. What I value about education has come to the fore and equally has been challenged.

One example that added to a train of thought that eventually led to this book was the demand by some of my colleagues in different institutions, frustrated by the apparent dependency of some of those in further and higher education, that students take more responsibility for their learning. What did colleagues mean by this? Why weren’t students being responsible, if indeed they were not? What were students doing, and what did they think they should be doing? Had they always been like this, and if so, was it inherent in young people of that age or something that had been socially constructed? Further questions ensued. Do young people have the right to succeed? If so, how can that be ensured, if indeed it should be? Isaiah Berlin (1969) pointed out that it is natural, and I would say necessary, to question issues of responsibility, for practical reasons or because humans are prone to reflect on such matters.

It would be understandable to assume that it is the role of the student to study and of the teacher to teach. However, that is much too simplistic given the shift from teacher-centred to more student-centred approaches and the increased accountability of teachers for student success. I have come across examples of extreme support. For instance, on the final day for submission, I witnessed a teacher typing a piece of coursework and offering prompts while a student suggested what to write (and this for a student without a recognised learning difficulty) in an attempt to avoid that student failing. Just this week I heard the tale of a teacher who was observed pasting pictures for a 17-year-old student to stick into a portfolio to prepare it for assessment because the student would not make the effort. A trainee teacher for whom I was a tutor was told to give everyone a distinction, serving the dual purpose of both the department and college appearing successful and the student gaining a better grade. What, I wondered, is the teacher’s role within the market-driven, accountable workplace? What rights do teachers and students have? Has the notion of rights become confused with getting what is desired or with entitlement? Is it the case in education that there are “no rights without responsibility” (Giddens, 2001: 8)? Many questions led back to government policy and a “plethora of reforms” (Tomlinson, 2001: 1) accompanied by the rhetoric of necessary change, which continues to this day; so too do criticism and resistance. As I write this, The Guardian (August 11, 2013) comments on the “rise in number of [academy] teachers claiming they are under pressure to inflate grades,” and The Telegraph has the headline “Universities reject Michael Gove’s A-level plan” (August 12, 2013).

Thus a set of three Rs emerged from my musings—roles, rights and responsibilities—that make up the theme explored in this book. Each of these is identified with reference to governance, teachers, parents and learners. The tensions and inequalities that arise as a result of these Rs will be drawn out. A fourth R, recognition, is introduced in the concluding chapter, which offers a philosophical perspective on the tensions and inequalities argued to be bound up with the possibilities and demands for institutional, social and individual recognition that continue to dominate education systems in the United Kingdom.

The first aim of the book is to provide an overview of the educational system in the United Kingdom and some of the variation within it. A second aim is to consider the contributions made by different people in the system, including the learners themselves. A third aim of the book is to provide an overview of a system that, in spite of political rhetoric, changes in policy and reams of research, continues to a large extent to produce and reproduce social inequalities. A final aim is to indicate some of the tensions that are an inevitable part of any system which vary in the degree of impetus for change or the harm that they cause to individuals, communities and society. Whilst some suggestions are made for how to address these, it is hoped that the book will provoke readers to ponder the state of affairs and consider their own solutions.

Setting the Scene

The book’s title refers to the United Kingdom, to education, and to tensions and inequalities. Regarding the United Kingdom, I will briefly outline its constituent parts and some similarities and differences in the education system of each region. I am using the term education here rather loosely, with the sense of all people and processes that are involved in teaching, learning and the provision of courses or qualifications. Further definition is offered later in this chapter. Regarding tensions and inequalities, a number of disagreements, conflicts, struggles and debates will become evident. This book is not arguing for one solution; rather it aims to review the state of affairs from different perspectives, specifically governance, educators and those in associated services, parents and learners. The theme is broad, particularly as each stage of the education system is referred to (pre-school, primary, secondary, further and higher education) as well as different parts of the United Kingdom. There is an inevitable trade-off between breadth and depth, although reference to further reading will be included throughout, and the contributions from expert colleagues will add depth to the discussion.

The United Kingdom and Education

Before embarking on the main themes of this book, it might be helpful to define the United Kingdom. I first came across the Scottish education system when I left what I assumed unthinkingly was the usual, British (English) system and travelled more than 500 miles to attend Edinburgh University. There I found, to my great surprise, that many of my contemporaries from Scotland were a year younger than me and had studied Highers, not A-levels (see the appendix for an overview of qualifications). In addition, for some time I was ignorant of the fact that a three-year honours degree in England took four years in Scotland and that the fourth year depended on selection to continue. It may well be that you are reading this book without complete knowledge of the British system and perhaps share similar naïve assumptions. In that case, it is hoped that the following discussion will make the situation clearer.

Great Britain is a big island that is made up of Scotland, England and Wales. The United Kingdom, sometimes confusingly referred to as Britain, politically consists of Northern Ireland, Wales, England and Scotland (Burns, 2010). The island of Ireland (Eire in Irish) is divided into the smaller Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, and the larger Republic of Ireland, which is not. The Republic of Ireland is politically separate and therefore will not be included in the chapters that follow. Each part of the United Kingdom shares features of the education system, yet there are some important differences (see, e.g., Phillips, 2000, and Gearon, 2002, for more detailed descriptions and analyses of similarities and differences). One difference is that Northern Ireland and some regions of England (particularly the southeast region and Lincolnshire) have retained grammar schools as part of maintained (state) education, although pupils are no longer routinely tested for entrance. Tables have been included in the appendix to give an overview of the differences in structure and qualifications within the United Kingdom.

The fact that there are different systems within a larger, currently interdependent one is in itself a source of tension and inequality. ‘Which system is better?’ one might ask, and this is usually tested by finding out which system leads to greater exam success. Disagreement about the purpose and structure of education is partly founded on the demand by Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to be recognised as independent nations within the United Kingdom that have to contend with different social and economic needs; thus the constituent parts of the United Kingdom are distinguished educationally to some degree by what young people should learn about and therefore by the curriculum. For example, the following assertions are peculiar to the school curriculum for Wales, which includes the national curriculum (Welsh Government, 2007):

• [It] supports government policy, including: bilingualism, Curriculum Cymreig/Wales, Europe and the World, equal opportunities, food and fitness, s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Governance
• 3 Learners
• 4 Parents
• 5 Teachers
• 6 Tensions and Inequalities Revisited: Roles, Rights, Responsibilities and Recognition
• Appendix
• References
• Index