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This study by Agnes van Zanten examines the new generation of teachers in France, exploring shifts in teacher profiles and educational systems. The research delves into the impact of generational renewal on classrooms, schools, and the teaching profession, highlighting insights from new teachers in the classroom and schools. It also discusses the challenges and temptations faced by new teachers, as well as the evolving perceptions of the teaching profession amid changing policies. The study questions the need for policy reforms and examines the potential for future changes in the educational system based on various factors.
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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