Education Debates in Modern France

Summary Schedule Autumn 2013

 

PART ONE: SECONDARY EDUCATION

 

1. An overview of secondary education 1789 to the present (2 lectures) [please note: as our seminar is scheduled on a Monday this year, we will not have a session in week one; I have therefore put up podcasts and slides on the week one seminar worksheet page]

 

2. François Dubet, L’École des chances. Qu’est-ce qu’une école juste?, chapters 1 and 2 (with supplementary material)

 

3. François Dubet, L’École des chances, chapters 3 and 4 (with supplementary material)

 

4. Christian Baudelot and Roger Establet, L’Élitisme républicain. L’école française à l’épreuve des comparaisons internationales, chapters 1-3 (with supplementary material).

 

5. Christian Baudelot and Roger Establet, L’Élitisme républicain, chapters 4-7.

 

READING WEEK.

 

PART TWO: HIGHER EDUCATION

 

7. The field of higher education in France (2 lectures; following broadly and developing the headings of Hugo Coniez, La Faillite des universités françaises?, chapters 1-2).

 

8. Student experience: universities (based on Coniez, La Faillite des universités françaises?, pp. 51-60, 94-105, and supplementary material).

 

9. The grandes écoles (lecture; then work with the documentary L’ENA: miroir d’une nation (G. Caillat and P. Legendre)).

 

10. Issues and debates: autonomy, selection, reform of first cycles, student fees, rapprochement of universities and grandes écoles (based on Coniez, La Faillite des universités françaises?, pp. 109-49).