"The major changes in French linguistic and literary education are intimately linked to the debate over French cultural identity. Addressing that topic from a range of disciplinary perspectives, this commemorative volume on French education-in France, in the ex-colonies, and in America-aims to sensitize scholars of French studies to unexplored aspects of the institutional history of our discipline."--BOOK JACKET.
Originally published in 1985. The French education system is unique in many ways and provides a useful contrast for those in all English-speaking countries to their own education system. The nature of the system; the resulting multiplicity of Inspectors; emphasis on nursery and primary schools and on vocational training; and the distinctions between different categories of teachers. This book provides an overview of the French education system and all its components. It discusses developments since the start of the Fifth Republic in 1958 and it relates the developments to changing political forces.
Originally published in 1971. This book looks at the French educational services. which had been being reformed over the 1960s. The dynamic for change stemmed from population pressures, higher aspirations and students’ dissatisfaction. The author shows how attempts to reform have been limited by administrative, political and cultural restraints. He also explores the whole complex of inter-related professional problems which face the reformers, including the need to revise and modernize the syllabus of work in many subjects, relationships between students and their teachers, and changes in the professional education of teachers. The book will interest all those interested in the working of an educational system and its relationship to the society around it.
Based on a unique historical source, this book examines the social origins, career expectations, and first jobs of 28,000 students in the “elitist” French secondary schools of the 1860s. Using sophisticated statistical analysis as well as conventional historical sources, the work concludes that schooling reached a wider audience than has been so far believed and that substantial social mobility occurred within the school system, but that family background, rather than educational factors, directed students’ career aspirations and achievements. It also argues that although education expanded in urban, industrialized areas, mobility did not increase in these areas. A final chapter reconsiders nineteenth–century thought concerning education in the light of findings about the social effects of schools.
Education, Culture and Politics in Modern France is concerned with the interrelationships among educational theory and practice, culture, and politics in France, with emphasis on the process of educational change during the first fifteen years of the Fifth Republic. This book presents a contemporary history of education in France and examines the debate about its schools and universities, as well as some of the underlying factors that account for the passion of the argument. This monograph argues that a new view of culture—defined as all the artefacts of men, whether these be material objects or their thoughts, ideas, beliefs and opinions—has enlarged the narrower, more literary concept that has swayed French education for 170 years. The discussions are organized around historical and cultural aspects; administration, finance and planning; schools, teachers, and society; and the politics of education. Government policies and school administration in France are analyzed, together with planning and budgeting for education; social factors in schooling; and the reform of higher education. Politics and education from 1958 to 1968 and since 1968 are also discussed. This text will be a useful resource for educators, politicians, sociologists, and political scientists as well as policymakers in the fields of education, culture, and politics.
"Women Teachers and Popular Education in Nineteenth-Century France is a study of the network of women's teacher training schools, known as the ecoles normales primaires, that were gradually created in France during the nineteenth century. Although this study focuses on the recruitment of teachers, their pedagogical and social instruction, and the teachers' professional formation as part of a corporate group, the book also ties these teacher-related issues to the universal development of public primary education in France. Based on numerous national and departmental archives, the study also explores the social values inherent to public education in modern France through the corporate model of the women's normal schools."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The first priority of French missionaries was the conversion of the native population. Education was an important tool in the evangelization campaign because they believed that conversion was best secured when preceded and underscored by religious instruction. As Canada evolved into a French colony the religious orders increasingly turned their attention to the education of the children of French settlers. The period saw the establishment of a number of petites écoles (elementary schools), a Jesuit college for boys, and several trade schools. As Magnuson demonstrates, provision for education in the colony declined during the eighteenth century. First, membership in religious orders dwindled, reducing their capacity to serve the educational needs of an expanding population. Second, as the population of the colony grew, with more inhabitants born in Canada than in France, different values and priorities developed. The written word, notes Magnuson, held less attraction for the Canadian, who preferred the active life of the frontier.
