French Literature Reviews - 2026
C. Baudelot, R. Establet, Elitisme républicain. L'Ecole française à l'épreuve des comparaisons internationales
History, Politics and Society
Christian Baudelot, Roger Establet, Elitisme républicain. L'école française à l'épreuve des comparaisons internationales
Editions du Seuil
La République des Idées
EAN: 9782020993685
Publication date: 12/03/2009
Price: 10.50 euros
Number of pages: 128 pages
Publisher's overview:
The damaging effects of French-style educational elitism in light of international comparisons.
What ails the school system in France? First and foremost, its elitism: a culture of ranking and early elimination, compounded by a high tolerance for inequalities and their reproduction. This is the key lesson emerging from the international comparisons developed in this book. In the 21st century, the French school system remains hostage to the ideas that gave birth to it in the late 19th century: singling out a tiny elite while neglecting to sufficiently raise the overall level of everyone else. For a fortunate few, academic meritocracy is a race for top positions; for the vast majority, it translates into a swift and now heavily penalizing relegation in the labor market. Ultimately, France—which long believed it had the best school system in the world—now lags behind as a poor performer within its peer group of wealthy, developed nations.
Christian Baudelot and Roger Establet are sociologists who have collaborated for over forty years. Their enduring research focuses on education as both a driver of social equality and inequality, and as a factor in economic development. Their notable works include L'École capitaliste en France (Maspero, 1971), L'École primaire divise (Maspero, 1975), Le niveau monte (Seuil, 1989), Allez les filles ! (Seuil, 1992, 2006), and Quoi de neuf chez les filles ? (Nathan, 2007).
The sociological study of education has long investigated how institutional structures shape social mobility and reproduce economic disparities across generations. In the context of modern educational sociology, comparative assessments such as international student evaluations provide empirical benchmarks for evaluating national school systems against their peers. Sociologists Christian Baudelot and Roger Establet have extensively examined these dynamics over decades of collaborative research, focusing particularly on education as both a driver of social equality and inequality, and as a factor in economic development. Their previous investigations cover topics ranging from primary schooling and literacy trends to the shifting academic trajectories of students in contemporary society.
This volume examines the damaging effects of French-style educational elitism in light of international comparisons, focusing on a culture of ranking and early elimination alongside a high tolerance for inequalities and their reproduction. The authors address how the French school system remains hostage to the ideas that gave birth to it in the late 19th century by singling out a tiny elite while neglecting to sufficiently raise the overall level of everyone else. Readers interested in comparative policy analysis may find it relevant. For a fortunate few, academic meritocracy is a race for top positions, while for the vast majority, it translates into a swift and heavily penalizing relegation in the labor market.