The Intertwining of Laïcité and Ethnicity: Observations from Teachers’ Practices in State Schools in Provence

Abstract

In an approach which complements studies of youth experience, we analyze ethnicity by focusing on situations and actions through which teachers, managers and experts deal with diversity. As it considers discursive categories and institutional constraints, this approach underlines the role of informality and ordinary practices that present ethnicity as occupying a minority status in schools. In this article, we study references to ethnicity in the implementation of a national teacher-training policy in relation to laïcité, the system of secularism particular to France. This qualitative study took place in a local education authority in Provence. It shows that the truth regime of laïcité generates contradictory, potentially conflictual advice and instructions vis-à-vis ethnicity, according to social position and professional ethics. To the extent that ethnicity can be an unexpected dimension of the implementation of this policy, it illustrates the relevance of analyzing local practices and reflexivity in the management of diversity in schools.

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Laborde V., Silhol G. (2018) "The Intertwining of Laïcité and Ethnicity: Observations from Teachers’ Practices in State Schools in Provence " Italian Journal of Sociology of Education, 10(3), 58-81. DOI: 10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2018-3-4  
Year of Publication
2018
Journal
Italian Journal of Sociology of Education
Volume
10
Issue Number
3
Start Page
58
Last Page
81
Date Published
11/2018
ISSN Number
2035-4983
Serial Article Number
4
DOI
10.14658/PUPJ-IJSE-2018-3-4
Issue
Section
Special Section