Christelle BETOULIERES

Ethnographic analysis of the scope of the meritocratic narrative in the final year of secondary school: an individual and collective test.

Summary

For the past two centuries, the French education system has been permeated by a meritocratic narrative, erected as a dogma, which tends to shape the beliefs and social representations of those involved in the education system around a typical ideal of the meritocratic pupil, through which school practices (assessment, career guidance) are developed. If the currents of constructivist and critical sociology demonstrate, at the macro-social level, how this meritocratic narrative shapes the school institution and with it its actors, an ethnographic analysis of this meritocratic narrative in everyday school practices (assessment of academic level, career guidance) could provide another complementary point of view. Drawing on the tools and theoretical arsenal of symbolic interactionism, the aim of this research is to put social interaction back at the heart of the system, i.e., the logical atom of social activity: How do actors live out this meritocratic narrative on a daily basis? What interactions are built around the meritocratic narrative? With the help of a study based on interviews, participant observation and a survey of high school actors (students, teachers, parents), an ethnographic analysis can help us to grasp the similarities and differences in the construction of these social representations around this narrative. The aim of this ethnographic study is to understand how the players perceive the social world that surrounds them, and in particular, how the meritocratic narrative is reflected in their everyday understanding of schooling and school practices, as well as how the meritocratic narrative challenges the individual and the community.

Thesis supervisor: Geneviève ZOIA