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The new generation of teachers in France. Views on professionalism in a changing policy context Agnes van Zanten Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris. Changes in teachers’ profiles.
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The new generation of teachers in France Views on professionalism in a changing policy context Agnes van Zanten Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris
Changes in teachers’ profiles • Similar ,SES but stronger tendency to auto-reproduction and to choice of upper-middle-class partners • Higher university degrees but only slightly more pedagogical training • Small but growing number of teachers having worked elsewhere before choosing teaching
Changes in the educational system • « Massification » of secondary education • Growing importance of academic, social and ethnic segregation between and within secondary schools • Lack of coherent educational policies and new discourse on « meritocratic positive discrimination »
Qualitative impact of generational renewal • On classrooms • On schools • On the teaching profession • On teachers’ participation in policy enactment and policy making
New teachers in the classroom • Discovering adolescents • Discovering poverty and ethnicity • Discovering discipline problems • Discovering learning problems
New teachers in the classroom • The humanitarian temptation • The procedural temptation • The adaptive temptation • The segregative temptation
New teachers in schools • A segmented collegiality • A complex division of labour • A lack of management and support
A teaching profession ? • The wish for diversified careers • Teaching viewed as a variety of crafts and occupations • A distrust of hegemonic forms of representation
No need for policy ? • Lack of faith in the comprehensive school model • Lack of belief in big reforms • General perception of a hypocritical system of decision-making and administration
Will they change the educational system ? • Difficult to isolate generation differences from differences depending on position in the life cycle and in the professional career • School dynamics do not only depend on teachers but on parents, pupils, head teachers… • The scope and nature of changes will vary according to responses and directions from policy-makers and administrators