Education Policy and Social Class In the World Library of Educationalists, international experts themselves compile career-long collections of what they judge to be their finest pieces – extracts from books, key articles, salient research findings, major theoretical and practical contributions – so the world can read them in a single manageable volume. Readers will be able to follow themes and strands of the topic and see how their work contributes to the development of the field. Stephen J. Ball has spent the last 20 years researching, thinking and writing about some of the key and enduring issues in Education Policy and Sociology of Education. He has contributed 12 books and over 200 articles to the field. In Education Policy and Social Class, Stephen J. Ball brings together 16 of his key writings in one place. Starting with a specially written Introduction, which gives an overview of his career and contextualises his selection within the development of the field, the chapters are divided into three sections: ● perspectives on policy research ● policy technologies and policy analysis ● social class and education policy. This book not only shows how Stephen J. Ball’s thinking has developed during his long and distinguished career, it also gives an insight into the development of the fields to which he contributed. Stephen J. Ball is Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education at the Institute of Education, University of London. He is internationally renown for his research and writing in the field and has published widely in books and journals. Contributors to the series include: Richard Aldrich, Stephen J. Ball, Jerome Bruner, John Elliott, Elliot W. Eisner, Howard Gardner, John K. Gilbert, Ivor F. Goodson, David Labaree, John White, E. C. Wragg. World Library of Educationalists series Other books in the series: Lessons from History of Education The selected works of Richard Aldrich Richard Aldrich Education Policy and Social Class The selected works of Stephen J. Ball Stephen J. Ball Reimagining Schools The selected works of Elliot W. Eisner Elliot W. Eisner Reflecting Where the Action Is The selected works of John Elliott John Elliott Development and Education of the Mind The selected works of Howard Gardner Howard Gardner Constructing Worlds through Science Education The selected works of John K. Gilbert John K. Gilbert Learning, Curriculum and Life Politics The selected works of Ivor F. Goodson Ivor F. Goodson The Curriculum and the Child The selected works of John White John White The Art and Science of Teaching and Learning The selected works of Ted Wragg E. C. Wragg Education Policy and Social Class The selected works of Stephen J. Ball Stephen J. Ball First published 2006 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © 2006 Stephen J. Ball All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Ball, Stephen J. Education policy and social class: the selected works of Stephen Ball / Stephen Ball. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Education and state – Great Britain. 2. Educational sociology – Great Britain. 3. Educational equalization – Great Britain. 4. Social classes – Great Britain. I. Title. LC93.G7B33 2005 379.41–dc22 2005007302 ISBN 0-203-01517-7 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0–415–36397–7 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–36398–5 (pbk) CONTENTS Acknowledgements viii Introduction: the problem of policy 1 PART 1 Perspectives on policy research 7 1 Policy sociology and critical social research: a personal review of recent education policy and policy research 9 Introduction 9 Transformations 10 A new moral economy 11 Autonomy and discipline 12 A new civility 14 And so! 14 Education policy research 15 And then! 22 2 Discipline and chaos: the New Right and discourses of derision 26 The New Right and education: the beginnings 26 Political philosophy and social policy 35 3 What is policy? Texts, trajectories and toolboxes 43 Policy as text 44 Policy as discourse 48 Policy effects 50 4 Educational studies, policy entrepreneurship and social theory 54 5 Big policies/small world: an introduction to international perspectives in education policy 67 Post-modernity and the global economy 67 Magical solutions? 69 Localism and recontextualisation 75 Conclusion 76 vi Contents PART 2 Policy technologies and policy analysis 79 6 Ethics, self-interest and the market form in education 81 Commentary 91 7 Good school/bad school: paradox and fabrication 96 Introduction 96 Martineau 97 TQM 100 SDPing 107 Ofsteding 110 Conclusion 112 8 Educational reform, market concepts and ethical re-tooling 115 English education markets 116 A new civility and a new moral economy 121 Living markets! 122 9 Standards in education: privatisation, profit and values 130 Conclusion 140 10 The teacher’s soul and the terrors of performativity 143 The appearance of freedom in a ‘devolved environment’ 145 Policy technologies 145 The struggle over visibility 147 PART 3 Social class and education policy 157 11 Circuits of schooling: a sociological exploration of parental choice of school in social class contexts 159 Introduction 159 The circuits 160 Working class ‘locals’ 162 Middle-class ‘cosmopolitans’ 167 Discussion: complexities of choice 174 12 Space, work and the ‘new urban economies’ 178 Introduction 178 Michael 181 Wayne 184 Rachel 188 Discussion 193 Contents vii 13 Social justice in the head: are we all libertarians now? 198 14 ‘Ethnic choosing’: minority ethnic students, social class and higher education choice 215 The contingent chooser 218 The embedded chooser 222 Ethnic mix 227 15 ‘I heard it on the grapevine’: ‘hot’ knowledge and school choice 237 Introduction 237 Defining the grapevine 237 Analysing the grapevine 242 Conclusion 253 Appendix 255 16 The risks of social reproduction: the middle class and education markets 264 Trust/distrust of professional and expert systems 267 Spatialisation of risk and class – strategies and concerns are localised 269 The state sector as a risk 271 Anxiety, emotion and class choosing 272 Futurity 273 Epilogue 277 Bibliography 278 Index 287 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A life in social research is always and inevitably a social life, a life of relationships, collaborations, debts, favours, and obligations. Most importantly among these relationships are the literally thousands of people who have willingly submitted themselves to ‘being researched’ by me over a period of 35 years (so far!). I can only re-iterate the thank yous I offered at the time. But it has been pleasing to discover how many people have found ‘being researched’ a positive and indeed sometimes fulfilling experience – but this is not true of all. A life of research also contains many high and low points – ‘Will any of this ever make sense?’; ‘Do I really have anything of any worth to say here?’. Trinidad has always been there for me. I have also been lucky enough to be apprentice to a number of very special researchers – like Colin Lacey, Lawrence Stenhouse, Brian Davies, Tony Knight and Peter Woods, who taught me to think, write, see and work hard. And I have worked with a whole range of talented people from whom I have learned – Meg Maguire, Carol Vincent, Richard Bowe, Diane Reay, Alan Cribb, Sharon Gewirtz, Sheila Macrae, Sophie Kemp, Dave Gillborn, Rachel Herring, Hilary Radnor, Martin Thrupp, Alex Moore, John Fitz, Soile Pietikainen, Miriam David, Jackie Davies, Ivor Goodson, Naoko Ota, Stefan Larsson, Maria Tamboukou, Jennifer Wilson-Barnett, Sarah Bignold, Charles Batteson, Agnes van Zanten, Bethan Marshall, Geoff Whitty, Tony Green. Bob Burgess, Ann Gold, David Jones, John Smyth, Patricia Vanegas, Gustavo Fischmann, Silvina Gvirtz, Steven Crump, Clementina Marques Cardoso, Sam Neath, Christian Maroy, Dave Burrell, Tony Becher – traces of their influences are embedded throughout this text. I have also been lucky to have worked with and for people who have been enablers, who have made a point of making my lifer easier, of making things possible. In particular I would mention Tony Bailey, Margaret Brown, Caroline Gill, Paul Black, Dave Gillborn and Dylan Wiliam. Lastly there is Williams, Jasper and Smudge for being cute. The following articles have been reproduced with the kind permission of the respective journals ‘Big policies/small world: an introduction to international perspectives in education policy’, Comparative Education, 1998, 34(2): 119–30. ‘Circuits of schooling: a sociological exploration of parental choice of school in social class contexts’, The Sociological Review, 1995, 43(1): 52–78. ‘ “Ethnic choosing”: minority ethnic students, social class and higher education choice’, Race Ethnicity and Education, 2003, 5(4): 333–57. ‘Good school/bad school: paradox and fabrication’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 1998, 18(3): 317–36. Acknowledgements ix ‘ “I heard it on the grapevine”: “hot” knowledge and school choice’, British Journal of Sociology of Education, 1998, 19(3): 377–400. ‘Policy sociology and critical social research: a personal review of recent education policy and policy research’, British Education Research Journal, 1997, 23(3): 257–74. ‘Space, work and the “new urban economies” ’, Journal of Youth Studies, 2000, 3(3): 279–300. ‘The risks of social reproduction: the middle class and education markets’, London Review of Education, 2003, 1(3): 163–75.