CONTRIBUTION OF ANNE LEMONDE (UNIVERSITÉ PIERRE MENDES-FRANCE, GRENOBLE II) Issues a reform too fast CAPES
The following remarks have an ambiguous status: the fruit of reflection of a historian, it pretends to critically examine and, if possible, distant, a situation in which conjoin conflicts of interests and issues of broader scope. And at the same time, we do not deny by a vigorous pleading, that of an academic discipline which, as research discipline, it seems threatened by the reforms. However, defending the result of a more than secular, internationally recognized even today, can not be regarded as a mere "lobby" of the threatened community of academics, but would instead show some confidence before a record of which our institution did not blush.
in France and is a national originality, historical research is, since the sport has been recognized as a science, closely linked to the existence of "competitive examination" of education, especially secondary, but also, indirectly, primary. This follows a long tradition dating from the time the Jesuits expelled from the kingdom, were replaced by the colleges' aggregate of the university. " The phenomenon was not only increased in the nineteenth century. So much so that, with regard specifically to the history, when it was established in 1885, modern aggregation, the faculty was organized in new ways, in four academic periods, with accompanying chairs whose owners were responsible prepare candidates to questions about each of these periods. This is a French whose explanation lies in the very status of history in the definition of identity National after the defeat of Sedan. A dialectic effective then emerged that unites the three clusters related to the knowledge of history: social demand on the one hand, teaching the other hand, university research last. In this context, emerged a "French school of history" in the forefront, even before the First World War. Its prestige has not waned thereafter, although the last two decades of the twentieth century have a glimpse of some slowing in the face of developments in the historiography of Anglo-Saxon. Of course, this historic school has been questioned, also criticized for its excessive insurance, organization very Jacobin ... This shows at least the existence of mechanisms that, ultimately, ensure the democratic functioning of historical research with us, and this is commendable.
That is all that legacy lampooned the ongoing reform of the competitive examination for secondary teachers. Under the guise of "professionalism", the reform provides for: 1) remove the "specific program of assistance", replacing it with "programs at colleges and high schools" and the morning of a certain amount "of epistemology and history of the discipline "and 2) to delete" oral disciplinary "and replace it with a" scenario of education "and a" proof of knowledge of the education system ", 3) replace juries composed mostly academics by juries in "direct contact with the reality of schools and colleges." We will not stop here at the contortions of language, if not the language of wood, all this talk: About the exchange gives here teachers in the lobby of the hum. They had thought for a time pending lose their role as trainers and are doubtless reassured ... The terms of the reform give them succeed at the expense, not academics, but the discipline itself. That question will not debate, we can be quite certain; note, however, with foresight, the outcome of a power at once very poor in our midst. However, it is urgent to assess the consequences of such decisions and worry on the part of irresponsibility they contain. The remarks that follow may also be applied to other disciplines as history and geography. But it seems that the view of historians is especially revealing and frankly paradigmatic.
Let us first to one pole of the dialectic proposed above and, speaking of recruiting teachers of the Second Degree, that of teaching in colleges and high schools. By depriving the university of complete control of preparing the CAPES through reform "professionalizing" is likely to dry at the roots, everything that made the quality of French secondary education. Note straight away, because the issue is inextricably linked, that aggregation is not likely to overcome the evils of reform: the decrease drastically the number of posts in this contest is about to shut off access SLA and thus lead to the disappearance of all university centers in preparation for this competition.
In history, preparation for competition is (was) a year which included the candidates truly a "culture" as a historian, an identity, the manner, for example, the medical intern. This culture, what is it? To put it in a nutshell, it is of critical intelligence, which the historian says, in all modesty and with others, be a "professional." A critical intelligence that is the very foundation of democratic citizenship: far from declaring it the result of long training, tedious, involving ever academic rigor and intellectual obtaining the CAPES was like a coronation for the good student; ambition to disseminate as widely as possible in society, in the context of free and compulsory education was, without doubt, one of the greatest achievements of our republic. The translation "social" was one, long ago, the exceptional weight of history and geography in high schools and colleges, the third of the subjects after French and mathematics. Somehow, these very many teachers of history and geography are "price black hussars" in secondary education.
At the foundation of this critical intelligence, a method, that of the essay and commentary on documents, with extensive knowledge of "discipline" through CAPES 'old', and indirectly in the formation of secondary students, it was just a characteristics of the French spirit, accompanied by a general culture touted around the world. With the reform, the death knell has sounded the comment document and, without doubt, the essay with him. Behind the classics and La Princesse de Cleves, media-derided by our president, is a culture critic who will descend, no doubt mourned by a few malcontents. We can always accuse them of humming the same refrain about "the decline in the standard" we must nevertheless realize that we are dealing with something else and that we are indeed witnessing the sellout of a long legacy, legacy reactionaries are not alone in judging value.
We talk about professionalism, he would still know what you mean ... there was and is still in it lies the great professionalism of teachers of history and geography: a disciplinary culture very demanding, rigorous method which is inseparable. Speaking of professionalism by asking to recite a punt scheme ("the knowledge of the education system") without any critical intelligence, or thinking "to position" of very young students and, by definition, not experience, is at best naive. In any case, but an evil one who will tell us, finally, what is " professional "in knowing by heart the soundtrack of the year or the preaching of time on teaching duties. This is not serious and will never be, at best is this collusion, any cyclical, between a political-media display and the allegedly liberal advocacy niches favorable for certain categories of trainers First keen to stay where they are. And basically, are deported back to back the "real professionals" and scientists: the first would be in reality (ie the professional, supposed to be entirely contained in the teacher training institutes ...) the latter of dreamers out of time. Are we to understand that color scheme, accented with pretty arrows upward, describing the "system of education today is more real than a historian's research on the origins of national sentiment in France from the fifteenth century? Reality of a teacher today, what is it? It is a commuter college where violence and integration difficulties are daily. To confront it, not worth it not better to have thought seriously, which you master the scientific method, the question of identity rather that knowing the meaning of acronyms SMS, STI or STT? More generally, what are we critical to leave to our children for real political discourse of those who govern us?
If we now place at the other end of the chain of "genesis of historical knowledge, the universities, things can be said without makeup and without shame by teachers and researchers: a reform allegedly" professionalizing "of CAPES deprive historians of the most challenging aspect of their university education and ultimately the purpose of their task more directly engaged in" social demand "The trainer. Certainly, it must be rethought, perhaps enlarged, but of tackling the heart of any institution whose results are evident, may seem at the very least reckless. Through a complex process, the French historical research, high quality, is actually funded indirectly by the massive recruitment each year, many teachers of history and geography in colleges and high schools. In this recruitment, teacher-history researchers found their immediate social recognition and that this justified the French university has a large number of lecturers and professors of history, much larger than the foreign universities. And so, and only thus, that historical research has been French access to the successes we know it: the work of a group of people large enough to make effervescing mass and grow and dynamic projects.
The process is complex as this fact is not a coincidence or a well-dated appropriate lobbying: it is the result of a genuine social project, which made the story a centerpiece of our national identity, a finding which could only be performative and thus take of profound pedagogical implications (see the corresponding volumes of places of memory). Over the twentieth century, this link between congenital historical research and teaching was regularly revived, and last place in the early 90s, when recruited in the last great wave, many faculty members. We can redesign it, update it in a way perhaps less artificial than twenty years ago by anchoring more in the modern economy, the profitability criteria: for example, it is not absurd to imagine a training offer "complementary", as more of a quality cultural frameworks of the private sector or the future hospital managers. Other opening direction possible: to make our first real qualifying rounds, recognized as such, business administration ... etc.. However, it seems difficult to consider these openings as anything other than supplements: our grounding in education is existential. If the secondary is in fact cut off from the scientific culture, then, of course, more researchers will quickly fall: how to find justification in fact, a large number of faculty from when he will be content to familiarize students with "a good textbook for high school" ... The positions of teacher-researchers will then be reserved for a tiny portion of the Ecole Normale who have succeeded in their holes, and the whole dynamics, within universities, such as SLAs will be severed net forever. If another piece of society that feeds calving of French research, then we would know, unfortunately it seems that nothing animates as the planned reform, nothing else than the immediate interests of collusion and display media an incredible lightness.
