Constructivist sociology pays great attention to the procedures which allow to stabilise social constructs – plans, objects, instruments, ready-to-think arguments for debate, etc. For reasons explained further down, the UMR focuses its work on the history of political rhetoric and measurement tools. The design and dissemination of these tools lie on the circulation of knowledge between science, policy, top civil servants and field agents. The UMR will continue the work undertaken in this area.


The history of political rhetoric in education
Head: Bruno Garnier

Philosophers have long worked on argumentation and particularly on argument-based systems – the notion of justice for instance – underlying political organisations. Sociologists have recently relied on this tradition and speak rather of a history of political rhetoric. They are well aware that this notion is connected with the works of philosophers on argumentation, with the repertoire of collective action used by historians and with the notion of referential now common in political science. In any case, the purpose is to study how patterns of reasons which command a world view, separate what is important from the opposite and provide a system of common references, are developed. In Bruno Latour’s words, it is also the means to “close a black box”, i.e. make a number of connections automatic as they are not to be justified in the social debate any more. Obviously there are at least shades of meaning between these different terms. This question may be the topic for a symposium or a conference.
Interrogating the constitution of political rhetoric in education appears most relevant in the current situation. Two systems overlap: on one side, the rhetoric of equal opportunities, and an invaluable legacy of the Republic despite its current irrelevance; on the other side, a rhetoric of lifelong training borne by influential international organisations. Both are based on the same notions – equality, effectiveness, openness, closure, individual autonomy, citizen training, etc. but their perspectives are completely different. The former rhetoric is inward-looking – to promote equal opportunities and rank students according to their true worth, schools should be left outside the pressures of the world. The latter is outward-looking. In any case, as a number of students fails to seize the first opportunity offered during the period of studies, removing the compartments between training and production should offer these students a second chance.
It is when a “black box” cracks open and another is hard to close that their construction process becomes clear. Several fields are thus to be investigated.


Measurement policies
Head: Romuald Normand

The emergence of lifelong training policies at European level has considerably shifted the stakes of the assessment of the French education system. It is a fact that the new indicators and benchmarks provided by large international organisations influence the instruments currently available to assess the state of the school system and reshape them to meet the demands of cross-country benchmarking and convergence of education policies. In addition, training and education systems are increasingly and gradually decentralised across Europe with the rising prominence of assessment tools and procedures. In France, it is characterised by the transfer of new competencies from the State to local authorities through vocational training policies for students. The State, which is also engaged in the design of new procedures for the assessment of spending on education and targets of student outcomes, is also concerned by these changes. The very nature and measurement instruments used at the international, national and local levels to regulate education and training policies should be interrogated as well. These tools regarded as a guarantee of scientific objectivity for some and as support to political manoeuvring  for others are subject to debate in the scientific community. In a historical and sociological mix, the purpose of the works started in this research programme is to identify these evolutions in an international perspective with France being compared with other Anglo-Saxon and European countries. The focus will bear on the following points:
·    promoting a socio-history of epistemic spaces and expertise networks in their contribution to the design of measurement instruments in education at international level;
·    Monitoring the changes in the French statistics on inequality of opportunities;
·    Analysing the emergence of the new quality standards and assessment procedures of skills in lifelong training programmes;
·    Examining the tensions inherent to the adaptation to and the use of statistical data and assessment instruments in local contexts.



Circulation of knowledge between research, policy and practice
Heads: André Robert, Marie-Claude Derouet-Besson
Team: François Baluteau, Jean-Louis Derouet, Alain Kerlan, Romuald Normand

The UMR intends to be the place for the transfer of research findings to educational agents and build a reflexive stance, that is study the reproblematisation processes for these findings to pass from one environment to another.
The Paul Lapie Centre “Architecture and Education” serves this purpose. Its assignments include the provision of applied research, training (particularly for architects, town planners, landscapists), the development of resources for the teaching of architecture in high schools, and the delivery of expertise on public policies to sensitise the general public to architecture, etc. Other operations, especially the training of managers in education in agreement with the École supérieure de l’Éducation Nationale, could capitalise on its experience.
The UMR will also explore the circulation of knowledge between research and top civil servants for the development of steering or assessment indicators, standards, etc.