Between Necessity and Constraints: The Reform of Teacher Training in France (1990–2007)

Abstract

Creation of the Instituts Universitaires de Formation des Maîtres (IUFMs) testifies to the ambition to train new teachers who are in a better position to respond to the challenges of democratisation of secondary education. It is an issue of adding fresh impetus while taking into account a number of the consequences. However, if by and large, the IUFM seems to have responded to the aims set, a certain number of changes could be envisaged to still increase performance. Their integration with university, as laid down in the Fillon Law of 2005, could be one factor helping to increase efficiency.

Notes

1. Orientation Law on Education, no. 89–486, 10 July 1989 (Jospin Law).Please confirm where callout in the text should be places; note 1 removed from abstract, as abstracts should not contain notes.

2. Programme Law on the Future of the School no. 2005–380, 23 April 2005 (Fillon Law).

3. This plan, named after the two successive chairmen of a parliamentary commission created in 1944, was published in 1947, two years after the end of the war, too late for far‐reaching reforms (Prost, 1968).

4. In 2004, vocational education enrolled one million pupils in vocational schools (lycées professionnels) while apprenticeship centres, not controlled by the state, enrolled only 300,000 youngsters (Troger, 2004).

5. In the French Civil Service statute, this represents a material gain (higher salaries) as well as a symbolic gain for it is a change of employment category from class B (middle management) to class A (executive).

6. For example, the decentralisation acts of 1982–1983 provided for election of parent representatives on school boards of administration. Various changes were brought into the orientation process of pupils that gave parents more say in the choice of streams and the promotion decisions.

7. Following a book by Milner (1984) denouncing the excessive room made for pedagogy to the detriment of high demands towards acquisition of knowledge, a fierce debate had involved prestigious authors (some of them from the French Academy) criticising the position of thinkers of the left who were advocating a renewal of pedagogy in order to reduce school failure. This debate contributed to the rising mistrust of parents towards secondary education as it was expanding to foster democratisation.

8. The recteur, as chancelier de l'université, also plays a role in the universities he is ‘overseeing’. But universities were far more autonomous than IUFMs at the time.

9. A number of secondary education teachers are recruited through a different qualifying examination called ‘Agrégation’. The entry requirement is higher (a second degree called Maîtrise) and they are not required if they succeed to write a professional thesis. Their preparation has been largely left to universities where faculty argue that their higher academic qualification justifies the exemption from professional training.

10. Circulaire 91–202, 2 July 1991.

11. DEP, “Les enseignants des écoles publiques et la formation” [Teacher of Public School and Training], Note d'information no. 06–17, May 2006.

12. Decree No 2006–1733, 23‐12‐2006.

13. Article 713–9 of the Education Code provides that the school board decides upon the teaching and research policy within the framework of the university policy and the national regulations. It is consulted on contracts passed by the university that concern the school and on the allocation of staff and faculty positions.

14. Arrêté of 19 December 2006.

15. Circulaire 2007–045 of 23 February 2007.

16. A study conducted on the mémoire professionnel, an important element of teacher training supposed to make them reflect on their practices, has shown that they made very little reference to recent results of academic research. The few references found were old and taken out of manuals or reference books (Genelot and Lapostolle, 2007).