Does Pedagogical Innovation Make the University Fairer?
For the past twenty years, the issue of university dropouts has been on the agenda and has helped to reformulate the question of social justice in higher education. The transformation of the normative framework guiding public action has been accompanied by the use of dedicated instruments, privileging “innovation” as a means of regulating inequalities. By taking as object a project to fight school drop-out carried out by teachers and administrative staff of an IUT, this article studies how the legitimacy of pedagogical innovation is constructed within the university space. The analysis of the daily work carried out shows that the process by which a singular pedagogical activity is elevated to the rank of standard is not only based on a movement of enrolment to common values. It is also based on the deployment of management instruments that ensure the managerial regulation of institutions.