André D. Robert

'Plus ca change...'? Changes and continuities in education policy in France

How do educational systems change? If one conceives of educational policy as a process of vernacular globalization, it is important to analyse not just the formal statement of aims and procedures by state agents but also the complex interaction between local, national and transnational levels of policy-making and reinterpretation (Ball 1990, Ball and van Zanten 1999). The study of the transnational level is particularly important at the present moment because the globalization of economic systems, the political pressures towards homogenization from transnational agencies such as the EEC or the OECD, and the development of communication networks has considerably reduced the capacity of individual nation states to develop independent policies while increasing policy borrowing, both overt and covert, between countries (Ball 1998). Although this question is not examined at length in this issue, the reader familiar with educational changes in England and other countries will easily perceive a f̀amily resemblance’ between them and many recent trends in French education such as decentralization, school autonomy or the penetration of a market ideology. This view is nevertheless partially misleading. In its radical version it denies any kind of autonomy to educational systems, ignoring the influence of national cultural models. On the contrary, we believe that educational systems with a long historical tradition, such as the French system, have a strong capacity to resist external pressures (van Zanten 1997). Even if the French model of the educator state that Claude LelieÁ vre presents in this issue is undergoing profound transformations as the result of hybridization with other models and internal criticism, its value system and organizational structure still play a central role in educational debates and concrete educational choices.

Une culture ‘contre’ l’autre: les idées de l’éducation nouvelle solubles dans l’institution scolaire d’Etat? Autour de la démocratisation de l’accès au savoir

This article reconsiders the opposition traditionally drawn between the state school institution and the new currents in education, which are said to be more concerned with the overall personality of the learner rather than with the intellectual value of the contents of the curriculum. In spite of some references to other countries, the article concentrates mainly on France during the twentieth century, with an emphasis on the democratic accessibility to the different types of knowledge available. Interest in particular is placed on the grey areas, the possible points of overlap where the two cultures could meet, even graft onto one another. Another point of interest is the case of certain personalities quoted as upholders of the new currents but nevertheless occupying official positions in state education (for example, R. Gal, G. Monod, P. Meirieu). Consequently, through a study of one of two significant events and these mediators, it is possible to assess the extent to which the new ideas in education are capable of criticizing and helping the state school institution to progress. At the same time we can query the extent to which these new ideas risk losing their own identity on contact with the institution, and whether in the long run they are being used simply as an alibi by the institution.

L'école et l'argent

Un ouvrage ecrit par des experts sur des questions encore taboues et souvent jugees « sensibles ». En France, un quart du budget de l’Etat est consacre a l’education : comment evaluer l’impact et l’efficacite de cet investissement ? A chaque rentree scolaire, les medias s’interrogent sur le cout pour les familles et signalent l’essor du marche prive de l’accompagnement scolaire : l’education va-t-elle rester publique et gratuite ou y a-t-il actuellement une privatisation larvee ? Voici quelques-unes des questions au cœur de cet ouvrage qui aborde, pour la premiere fois de l’interieur meme du systeme, des « questions taboues ». Apres avoir delimite les objectifs de leur etude, les auteurs passent en revue quatre grandes questions : la gratuite, son principe et sa realite aujourd’hui ; la relation public-prive et les risques de marchandisation de l’education ; le prix de l’ecole et les modalites (equitables ou non) de son financement sur l’ensemble du territoire national ; l’evaluation de l’efficacite de l’ecole. Ils s’efforcent d’apporter les elements d’information necessaires a une comprehension globale de ces questions en cherchant les voies qui menent vers plus d’equite dans le respect du service public.

Renouvellements générationnels chez les enseignants du premier degré : matériaux, éléments d’analyse

Cet article a pour ambition de rassembler quelques materiaux relatifs a un eventuel phenomene generationnel qui se manifesterait aujourd’hui chez les «nouveaux » enseignants du premier degre, et d’envisager quelques pistes d’interpretation. Apres avoir opte pour une definition des notions de «generation » et de «marqueur generationnel » , et avoir situe les enjeux, les auteurs examinent des donnees d’enquete concernant les attitudes par rapport au metier, a la formation, a l’engagement, ainsi que l’existence de «sentiments » , voire de «conscience » generationnels, chez les jeunes enseignants. Ils presentent ensuite un entretien approfondi mene avec Cecile, qui pourrait passer pour emblematique de sa generation. Au terme de comparaisons a plusieurs facettes, les auteurs esquissent une reponse a l’interrogation : quel «marqueur generationnel » peut, au vu des donnees mobilisees ici, etre suppose efficace parmi les nouveaux enseignants du premier degre aujourd’hui ? ; ;