The presentation focuses on an ethnographic approach of public and private secondary school in Brittany. Contrary to American sociologic literature for example, this research object isn’t much explored in France and yet the double schooling system is at the heart of historic, scientific and methodological debates. The school laws have always had to take a stand on the position of the private education (Tanguy, 1972). The compared efficiency of both sectors of education provides different research results (Langouët & Léger, 1994; Reddy, 1994; Tavan, 2001; Caille, 2004) and questionings, in particular methodological ones (Valdenaire, 2004). Furthermore, almost all the work being about the comparison of both schooling systems uses the quantitative methods. Our research questions the differences of school careers between pupils who go to public secondary schools and those who go to private secondary schools, focusing particularly on the effects of the schooling context (Duru-Bellat & Mingat, 1988). We examine the link between the mobilization of the school interpreted as a system of social relations (Dubet, Cousin, & Guillemet, 1989) and the schooling of young people (between 11 and 16 years old). What are levels and forms of mobilization in every sector of education? How does each person describe and explain its role? To what extent does the internal organization of education, through notably the "relational styles", influences the pupils' careers and socialization?

Our methodology seeks to show and analyze the logics of functioning of each sector of education. In order to compare, both, private secondary schools and public secondary schools situated in the same locality, the fieldwork is composed of four schools of different sizes and implanted either in the country, or in semi-urban environment. The data collection consists of interviews with the actors of the schools (headmasters, teachers, school counsellors, supervisors, pupils) and observations (in class, in the playground, in the self-service, in the school life, the administration, etc.). This ethnographic method focuses on a study of the situations, the interactions, and the processes which produce them (Woods, 1990).

With the recourse to " school zapping " which hasn't stopped increasing, approximately 40 % of the pupils go at least one year to a private school in France. So, we have to improve our scientific knowledge of the private sector, especially since macrosociologic and international work showed differential success according to the sector. To continue examining those questions, we describe and analyze the features of the schooling contexts of private and public schools using a qualitative methodology, because we want to better understand those phenomena in all their complexities. We concentrate on processes, actions taken in interactions, distances between the intentions and the practices. We study the interior of each “school world”. The combination of elements (relationship between various spheres (teachers and pupils, supervisors and pupils, headmaster and teachers...), mobilization of school teams and of parents) can explain pupils' differentiated schooling (internalization of rules, investment, orientation...).