8 - The politics of schooling

Summary

In this chapter, I turn to Lavialle's school in the most recent period considered in this book, that of the early 1980s. Because of the centralized nature of French education, parents in Lavialle have been constrained in their ability to influence schooling directly. They have, nevertheless, adopted effective ways to influence the education of their children. Both positive and negative forms of influence have been used by families, which can be considered as forms of accommodation and forms of resistance. As was seen in the previous chapter, the strategies which families adopt in order to influence schooling vary according to their own perceived needs and the avenues for influence available to them. During the period under consideration here, forms of resistance to the school and teachers were striking. These were, for the most part, responses to changing circumstances and reflect the overall stance of conservatism in Lavialle that has, paradoxically, helped it to survive as a viable community. These educational strategies did not reflect a total resistance to learning, or to all aspects of schooling. Rather, they were forms of influence on the schooling that children experienced.

My fieldwork in Lavialle coincided with several important events at both national and local levels. First, 1981 marked the beginning of the celebration of the centennial of the Ferry laws establishing universal public primary education in France. This was also the year of the landmark 1981 French presidential elections, in which a Socialist president was elected for the first time in fifty years.