The sociology of pupils

Abstract

In France the sociology of pupils has for a long time been reduced to the study of social inequalities in connection with proximity or distance from teacher expectations. Recent transformations of the educational system, and especially the fact that working-class pupils now attend secondary schools and even higher education in considerable proportions, have brought about a change in researchers' perspectives. Pupils are less defined by their role as élève than by the way in which, as individuals, they construct and make sense of their school experience. This subjective mechanism must, however, be understood by taking into account that in France school institutions and society in general distribute social and cultural resources unequally and thus create what may be called ‘ordeals’ for pupils to overcome.