From “coeducation” to “parental abdication”: The discourse on parents in a French alternative school project (1970-2000)
This article deals with teachers’ discourses on parental education in French alternative schools of a popular suburban neighborhood, between the 1970s and the 2000s. It shows that, in order to fight against social inequalities, this educational project aims at orienting parents’ educational behavior and expresses a moral judgment on parental education. The analysis relies on qualitative interviews conducted with former teachers and a collection of public and private archives about the alternative pedagogical project. It questions the tension that arises between teachers’ political and pedagogical emancipation project (who use critical pedagogies and oppose the educational system) and popular parents’ expectations (who wish educational achievement for their children). While teachers’ principle of “coeducation” aims at engaging parents in school activities and functioning, disadvantaged parents are excluded from participation in these initiatives. This tension raises overtime. As the neighborhood’s impoverishes in the 1980s, teachers’ discourse on parents evolves, and points parental “abdication” as an obstacle to their alternative pedagogical practices. This discursive shift reveals the increasing social gap between teachers and popular parents.