Questions migratoires en milieu scolaire. Lorsque la diversité questionne l’universalisme républicain. Regard des professionnels de l’éducation en collège et lycée

Abstract

Migration issues were one of the themes addressed by the education professionals interviewed as part of national research into teaching practices in a context of social and cultural diversity. Our questioning is as follows: how are the tensions surrounding migration issues reflected in the school environment? How do they affect the teaching practices of education professionals? How do the latter interpret situations involving the foreign origin of students? The hypothesis defended is that the understanding(s) of the school’s social role as an instrument of social and national unification combines with an understanding of the school as a place where social diversity is valorized. Drawing on pragmatic sociology, we have analysed 47 professional and contextual situations that reveal the complexity of thinking on the universalist social function of the school in terms of the demand for recognition of the cultural diversity and origins of its actors.

Keywords

• migration
• professional practices
• diversity
• secularism
• republican schools