School Choice and Student Well-Being: Opportunity and Capability in Education

260 Pages·2007·0.834 MB·English

by  Anthony Kelly (auth.)

School Choice and Student Well-Being
Other books by Anthony Kelly
BENCHMARKING FOR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT
DECISION MAKING USING GAME THEORY
THE INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL OF SCHOOLS
School Choice and Student
Well-Being
Opportunity and Capability in Education
Anthony Kelly
© Anthony Kelly 2007
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-0-230-54926-5
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 Road,London 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 author has asserted his right to be identified as
the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
First published 2007 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Houndmills,Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS and
175 Fifth Avenue,New York,N.Y.10010
Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St.Martin’s Press,LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
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.
ISBN 978-1-349-36170-0 ISBN 978-0-230-59028-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230590281
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources.Logging,pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kelly,Anthony,1957–
School choice and student well-being:opportunity and capability in
education/Anthony Kelly.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. School choice.2. Education–Social aspects. I.Title.
LB1027.9.K45 2007
379.1'11—dc22 2007022488
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07
To Ann, Jane & Colum
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Tables and Figures x
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xv
Part I School Choice, Globalisation and the
Commodification of Education: Choosers and Losers
1 School Choice: An Overview 3
Neo-liberalism and the political debate 3
Advantages and disadvantages to school choice 8
Private and faith schooling 13
Choice, effectiveness and motivation 17
Social class and risk 23
Choice and geographical location 26
Choice and segregation 28
2 School Choice and Transition 33
School admissions policies 33
Factors which influence individual and
group parental choice 36
Choice and the psychodynamic of moving
from primary to secondary school 45
Gender and the transition to secondary school 49
3 School Choice and Globalisation 53
Global trade agreements and their effect on education 53
The changing agency of the state in education 56
The rise of ‘performativity’ in the United Kingdom 65
Between regulation and the free market:
demarchical control 68
Between regulation and the free market:
mobility and the leisure curriculum 70
Globalisation and school improvement 71
Globalisation, managing change and
teacher professionalism 73
vii
viii Contents
4 School Choice and Marketisation 79
The General Agreement on Trade in Services 79
The emergence of state-market partnerships 82
The calculus of choice and risk 85
Hierarchies and local markets in schooling 93
Voter support for marketisation and
competition in education 95
5 School Choice, Competition and Performance 100
Quasi-markets in education: competition
and cooperation 100
The impact of marketisation on student
attainment 105
The dynamics of local competition 111
Headteachers’ perceptions of competition
and student attainment 112
Competition and curriculum diversity 114
6 Actualising Choice in Schools and Communities 118
Assumptions about choice and school
organisations 118
Education triage and school markets 122
School choice and school closure 124
The practice of school headship in the
education marketplace 125
School choice and the role of headteachers 128
Local education authorities and regulation 129
The self-selection of pupils between schools 132
Schools and employers under marketisation 134
Part II Adapting Sen’s Theory of Capability to
School Choice
7 Well-Being and Capability 141
Social choice 143
The meaning of utility 146
Well-being and advantage 147
Commodity and capability 148
Contents ix
8 Utility and Functionings 152
Approaches to utility 152
Functionings 155
Valuation 158
The measurement of well-being 159
9 Aggregation and Evaluation 163
The aggregation of well-being 163
The Impossibility problem 164
The problem of using the same valuation function 166
The evaluation of advantage 167
10 Asset-Mapping 170
Freedom and agency in school communities 172
Deficiency and empowering assessments 175
Notes 179
References and Further Reading 192
Index 233