Philippe Savoie

Société et école: réflexions autour de l'enseignement technique français (XIXe-XXe siècles)

In history of french education, technical education has been neglected for a long time, partly because historians focused on its finality and functions and considered it connected with economy, work market, technical progress, or class struggle, more than with school. The aim of this article is to show that, even in the case of technical schools with workshops, schooling cannot be reduced to a response to skills need or to social demand.Unsophisticated workshops of technical and middle schools by 1860 and mechanized school workshops by 1900 were not only usedfor training apprentices for craft or industry. In many schools, manual work was associated with general and theoretical studies, and one of its main functions was to train pupils for examinations of the ecoles darts et metiers, technical schools of a raising level Ecoles darts et metiers requirements and model had an strong influence on level and equipment of technical and higher primary schools.Technical schools generally associated very different...

Marie-Madeleine Compère (1946-2007). Historienne érudite et pionnière de l’éducation

«xa0J’ai finalement pris le parti de ne pas pretendre etre autre que le produit de ma propre formation, c’est-a-dire avoir des reflexes conformes a la tradition historiographique francaise en general et a mon itineraire personnel en particulierxa0: rendre compte des productions issues de la sphere historienne, etre sensible au long terme, privilegier les pratiques sociales par rapport aux institutions et aux normesxa0». Tous ceux qui l’ont cotoyee reconnaitront dans cette epigraphe la lucidite et l...

The Role of Cities in the History of Schooling: A French Paradox (Nineteenth-Twentieth Centuries)

The centralisation of French educational institutions is more in keeping with a political and social model than with reality. The construction of a complete school system under state supervision started early but has been a process of more than a century and a half long, which until 1880 mostly concerned the education of the elite (higher education and the lycées), and which left an important role to cities. Part of the educational action of the state has long been based on the idea that training courses should be adapted to the needs of cities and regions. Towns were entrusted with a great part of the state educational policies while influencing the private sector at the same time. But although their school policies had abiding features and their financial commitments increased considerably during the nineteenth century, cities have never been independent of the state. Moreover, a great many other local groups and individuals took part in school development. Urbanisation in France has been gradual, which accounts for the lack of interest in urban educational studies on the part of French historians. The shift of the past few years has given us a whole new insight into our knowledge of the history of schooling and has brought to light its institutional, material and financial factors - overlooked until now. One of these factors is the permanent threat of pupil shortage which weighed heavily on most nineteenth century public and private post-elementary schools. Until public education became free - in 1881 in primary schools and in the 1930s in secondary schools - all schools were basically self-supporting. Recruiting a sufficient number of pupils was both a crucial necessity and one of the driving forces behind the creation and the renewal of educational provision, especially when several schools were in competition. Free education did not bring about any profound changes: the growth of school attendance reduced the unitary cost of studies and remained a major criterion by which the value of school management was judged.