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30 septembre 2010

A French Approach to Minority Islam ?

Int. Migration & Integration (2010) 11:59–72

DOI 10.1007/s12134-009-0125-9

 

A French Approach to Minority Islam ? A Study in Normative Confusion

 

Françoise Lorcerie

 

Published online: 19 January 2010

http://www.touteduc.fr/lorcerieislam.pdf

 

 # Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

 

Abstract

In this paper, the author argues

(1) that the normative model of the “Republican school” the school agents adhere to is not opposed to the expression of social or religious memberships: rather, it ignores them. 

(2) That this model of school is currently being deeply undermined by the visibility of the “second generation” of postcolonial immigrants.

(3) That this generates various kinds of reactions in the school space: first, reactions from Muslim students themselves and secondly, erratic reactions from teachers and other school personal who try to manage issues they feel important, without having been trained at all to do so.

 

Résumé

Dans son article, l’auteure argumente en quatre temps.

(1) Le modèle normatif d’ «école républicaine » auquel adhèrent les agents scolaires ne s’oppose pas à l’expression des appartenances sociales ou religieuses, il les ignore plutôt.

2) Or, ce modèle de l’école est aujourd’hui profondément miné en France par la

visibilité de la « seconde génération » d’immigrés postcoloniaux.

(3) Cela suscite diverses sortes de réactions dans l’espace scolaire, d’abord de la part des élèves eux-mêmes : la littérature commence à les décrire.

(4) En second lieu de la part des personnels, amenés à gérer les problèmes dans l’improvisation, sans aucune formation.

 

Keywords

Republican model . Ethnic-racial categorization . Headscarf, Teachers’ agency

 

Mots clés

modèle républicain . catégorisation ethno-raciale . foulard. activité des enseignants

 

Conclusion

 

An enduring contradiction can be observed in French educational field between:

 

1. The ideological polarisation around the norm of the “Republican model” and the  “Republican school”. This ideology maintains in the public sphere the dream that school is a non-social frame. It demands that everybody adapt to it; and now, specifically, that students abstain from showing any signs of religious affiliation. In accordance with that, there is not a formal French approach to minority Islam in education. There can be a teaching of Islam as a religion under the condition of scientific truth—mediaeval Islamic civilization is part of the curriculum. But the concept of minority Islam implies a sociological reading of the French situation. This is (reluctantly) assumed by social ministries, but steadily rejected by the French ministry of education.

 

2. Accordingly, students who utter specific collective interests are blamed in the public sphere (the media, certain political speeches) as unfit for school. Such interpretations foster social stereotypes against Muslims, they enforce their minority status. Consequently, by now, Republicanist speeches (about school or anything else) are rhetorically close to nationalist discourse, and they have come to legitimate minority othering. That could be seen notably during the 2003 episode of politicisation of the Islamic veil.

 

3. These general conditions are in the background of teachers’ activities in the schools. An unknown proportion of teachers try to address the new issues and expectations they feel emerging from real classrooms. They feel or imagine that students expect some sort of collective recognition in relation to Islam and to colonial history. That seems to be right. But in French organisational conditions, their practices cannot be stabilised. Teachers in heavily populated urban settings are led to improvise alone, and they are trapped into commonsensical categorizations of their students and neighbourhoods, which are, philosophically, not “republican” and ethically not the best.

 

In all, there are 7,300 pupils studying the Arabic language in secondary French schools with a decreasing number of schools.


voir aussi :

 Comment la "seconde génération" d’immigrés vit et interroge l'école républicaine. (recherche)

http://www.touteduc.fr/index.php?sv=29&aid=2383

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