ISCHE 46 – Keynote Speakers Clémence Cardon-Quint
Clémence Cardon-Quint is Professor in History at Université de Montpellier Paul-Valéry (France), member of the research laboratory CRISES, and of the Institut universitaire de France. She is co-editor of the journal Histoire de l’éducation. Her scholarship has successively focused on teaching and teachers of literary subjects in the 20th century; on subject matter associations; on budgetary aspects of education; and on knowledge regime and research policy in educational matters. In her research, she sought to understand how the evolution of knowledge, the exercise of state power and social change simultaneously contributed to transformations in schools. Her publications include Des lettres au français. Une discipline à l’heure de la démocratisation (1945-1981) (PUR, 2015), and L’argent de l’école. Histoire du budget de l’éducation nationale depuis 1945 (Presses de Sciences Po, 2025).
“Portrait of the teacher as a civil servant”
The professionalization of teachers is rightly recognized as a key element in the development of mass schooling and the effectiveness of education. This process is shaped by the relationships that teachers – both as individuals and as organized groups – maintain with various segments of the State. In France, this relationship is particularly strong: the State regulates teacher qualifications, recruits through competitive exams, inspects, pays and so on. Over the course of the last two centuries in France, teachers became increasingly “civil servants” (fonctionnaires) – which can mean many things.
As a result, alongside the primary relationship between teachers and their pupils in the classroom, there exists a secondary network of connections linking teachers to the State. This network is more distant and harder to define, but no less tangible, if only through the paycheck. The status of civil servant carries with it a series of duties and obligations: teachers implement the curricula defined by the State, uphold official values, obeys their hierarchy… However, as we know, this framework does not fully capture the complexity of the situation, both past and present. This puts the historian in a dilemma. Studying teaching in the 20th century as if the state didn’t play a role overlooks the profound influence it has had, starting with the materiality of the archives that give us access to this history. Yet, giving the State the place it is legally entitled to is to treat a constructed narrative at face value.
In this talk, Clémence Cardon-Quint will explore this network of relationships, made up of men, women, forms, financial flows, texts and more, analyzing both the factors that strengthen and those that weaken it. She will revisit key questions raised throughout her research – such as teacher training, activism, school culture, the role of women, remuneration – while drawing on both French and international scholarship on the embedment of teachers in the State. Teacher’s place within the State is not given once and for all; rather, it is result of an ongoing process of reciprocal adjustments, regulation, contestation… The rise of private players in education since the late 20th century, the recent surge of the anti-establishment voting among French teachers, or the rejection of the competitive examination by aspiring teachers all indicate that the integration of teachers into the State may be less irreversible than previously thought.
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