Training and professionalization. Aspirations of the primary school teachers from the Swiss canton of Vaud (1880-1976).

Author(s):

Fabrice Bertrand

Conference:

ECER 2009

Network:

17. Histories of Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

17 SES 11, Teacher Professional and Training (Part 2) / Presentation of the Vienna Schoolbook and School Reports Collection

Paper Session. Continued from 17 SES 07 A

Time:

2009-09-30

16:45-18:15

Room:

HG, HS 34

Chair:

Angelo Van Gorp

Contribution

Between 1833 and 2001, in the Swiss canton of Vaud, the Normal School was the way of training candidates to become primary education teachers. As in other places, this model has always been called into question. This research is part of a doctoral thesis which is linked to the works of the research team in History of Sciences of Education (ERHISE, University of Geneva) which has already dedicated a significant amount of work in exploring this question (Hofstetter & Schneuwly, 2004, 2007 ; Lussi, 2008). Our study is based on a specific case and includes some comparative elements. Our goal is to understand how a teachers’ association, the “Société pédagogique vaudoise (SPV)” raised, through training, the social group it tended to represent. Indeed, the professional model is fascinating (Bourdoncle, 1991, 1993, 1994 ; Larson, 1979 ; Nóvoa, 1987, 2006 ; Robert, 1995, 2006 ; Robert & Tyssens, 2008). Nevertheless, the primary school teachers stood apart from institutions shaping the elite and the comments often hold constrained them to remain in a modest position. This paper attempts to analyse this struggle, which appears as a collective process of upward social mobility, by focusing on three periods: - The 1880s, characterised by a crisis of the Lausanne Normal School, which closure was required by the SPV to favour a superior or academic training system. - The 1920s, when the “Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau”, founded in 1912 in Geneva, opened the possibility for professionalization, and which saw on the one side, the development of experimental psychology and on the other side, projects of a “Unique school, which required a common education for teachers of primary and secondary schools. - Finally, the “Glorious Thirty”, an era of chronic shortage of teachers, also characterised by the development of the service sector in the economy, which gave way to a need for skilled staff, while reforms of the Normal School led to the law of 1976.

Method

The sources of our investigation are a large number of archives.We will examine proceedings of the board, articles in professional newspapers, proceedings of conferences. We will proceed to a analysis of discussions about laws and Normal school’s reforms.Our analysis is more specifically based on the primary school teachers’ point of view. It considers expectations of a corporation from a double perspective: at a theoretical level with a “professionalist” approach and at an empirical level from studies referring to the history of education. Indeed, our intent is to compare studies in the sociology of occupations with a precise case in its specific historical context. Favouring a problem-oriented history, we substitute for the supposed coherence of a "period" the analytical examination of a question (Furet, 1992).

Expected Outcomes

With this research, we aim at understanding the expectations of a corporation. By contributing to the analysis of both the training institutions and the organized teachers’ activity, we can show that controversies about the teachers’ training system have an historical depth. It also allows us to have a better understanding of the current issues about teachers’ training, particularly in Europe. Our study will be compared with other situations to highlight the national and international contexts. In our paper, we want to discuss the view proposed by Ozga and Lawn that “professional behavior may simply represent an orientation of union action rather than an alternative to such action (1981, p. VII). Primary teachers’ training is a relevant area to illustrate this statement.

References

Bourdoncle, R. (1991). La professionnalisation des enseignants. Analyses anglaises et américaines: la fascination des professions. Revue Française de Pédagogie, 94, 73-92. Bourdoncle, R. (1993). La professionnalisation des enseignants: les limites d’un mythe. Revue Française de Pédagogie, 105, 83-119. Bourdoncle, R. (1994). L’université et les professions. Un itinéraire de recherche sociologique. Paris: INRP et L’Harmattan. Furet, F. (1982). L’atelier de l’histoire. Paris: Flammarion. Hofstetter, R., Schneuwly, B., Lussi, V. & Cicchini, M (2004). Evolution de la formation des enseignants secondaires: logiques disciplinaires – logiques professionnelles. L'exemple de Genève fin du 19e -première moitié du 20e siècles. Revue suisse d'histoire. 54, 3, 275-305. Hofstetter, R., Schneuwly, B. & coll. (2007). Emergence des sciences de l’éducation en Suisse à la croisée des traditions académiques contrastées. Fin du XIXe – première moitié du XXe siècle. Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt/M., New York, Oxford, Wien: Peter Lang. Larson, M. (1979). The rise of professionalism. A sociological Analysis. Berkeley: University of California Press. Lussi, V. (2008). Formations à l’enseignement et sciences de l’éducation. Analyse comparée des sites universitaires de Suisse romande (fin du 19e – première moitié du 20e siècle). Thèse de doctorat en Sciences de l’éducation N°413. Genève. Nóvoa, A. (1987). Le temps des professeurs: analyse socio-historique de la profession enseignante au Portugal (XVIIIe-XXe siècle). Lisbonne: Instituto nacionál de investigação cientifica. Nóvoa, A. (2006). La construction du «modèle scolaire» dans l’Europe du Sud-Ouest (Espagne, France, Portugal). Des années 1860 aux années 1920. Thèse de doctorat d’histoire. Paris: Université Paris IV- Sorbonne. Ozga, J. & Lawn, M. (1981). Teachers, Professionalism and Class: A Study of Organized Teachers. London: Falmer Press. Robert, A. (1995). Le syndicalisme des enseignants des écoles, collèges et lycées. Paris: La Découverte. Robert, A. (2006). Miroirs du syndicalisme enseignant. Paris: Syllepse. Robert, A & Tyssens, J. (2008). Introduction: mapping teachers’ strikes a « professionalist » approach, Paedagogica historica, 44, 501-516. .

Author Information

Fabrice Bertrand

University of Geneva

Lausanne

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