The French and German education systems reproduce social inequalities. The PISA[1] 2018 international survey, for instance, measured that students’ social background impacts their performance more strongly in these two countries than the average for OECD countries (OECD, 2019).

Both countries have brought forth new policies recently to tackle social reproduction concerns. In Germany, the reform Schule macht stark (School makes you strong) was adopted in 2019. The programme is a national policy, which is rare in Germany, where education is the preserve of the Länder (Hepp, 2011). It aims to support primary and secondary schools "in difficult situations" (Schulen in schwierigen Lagen), which are characterised by a high proportion of disadvantaged pupils, often from migrant backgrounds, as well as by rapid staff turnover and overwork (BMBF & KMK, 2019). To improve learning conditions, the reform seeks to network these schools with actors outside the education system and to diagnose their exact needs by accompanying researchers. These aspects resemble the main policy in France that tackles social inequalities at school: la politique d’éducation prioritaire (the priority education policy). Although this policy dates back to 1981 and concerns a larger number of schools, its aim is similar: to "correct [social] inequality by selectively strengthening educational action in areas and social environments where the school failure rate is highest"[2] (Bulletin officiel, 1981). The new version, approved in 2014, is particularly akin to the German policy as researchers have been involved in its creation, networks of schools have been formed and staff turnover has been given special attention (Rochex, 2016).

This paper analyses the conception of equality behind these reforms. Dubet differentiates three types of equality for his study of the sociology of education (2017): Equality of Access exists when every child has access to schooling, which is guaranteed at primary and secondary level in both France and Germany. Promoters of Equality of Opportunity focus on providing children with the same conditions to reach the highest positions of society. Less privileged students should be able to attain the most prestigious jobs based on merit, conceived of as a combination of talent and hard work. Those that endorse Equality of Results aim to reduce the difference between the best and the lowest scoring children and to raise the minimum level of education attained by all children.

Based on the analysis of the two reforms cited, I examine the conceptions of social equality held by national and regional policy actors in the education domain in France and Germany and explore how these conceptions are introduced into educational reforms that target inequalities.

I take a sociological approach inspired by the work of Stephen Ball on policy reform (Ball, 1990, 2015; Ball et al., 2012). Ball establishes a distinction between the study of “policy as a text” and “policy as a discourse” (2015). In the first case, the policy is described through its content and its different translations by the actors. Investigating policy “as a discourse”, on the other hand, focuses on ideological trends that influence actors creating and enacting policy.

[1] PISA and OECD respectively stand for Programme for International Student Assessment and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

[2] Own translation, original in French : « corriger l’inégalité [sociale] par le renforcement sélectif de l’action éducative dans les zones et dans les milieux sociaux où le taux d’échec scolaire est le plus élevé ». 

In this paper, I analyze qualitatively documents and interviews. I collect relevant written productions in Germany and in France, such as reports on meetings on the two policies and political texts on social inequalities in education in both countries. I will participate in conferences and work sessions on the two policies. If possible, I would like to attend the yearly bundesweite Netwerktagung on Schule macht stark and the national Auftaktkonferenz which was planned in January 2021, but got postponed to September. At the regional level, I will join regular meetings of policy actors such as the comité de pilotage in France and an equivalent in Germany. When it is impossible to attend meetings on the implementation of policies, I collect reports on work sessions. My main way of generating insights is through interviews. The interviews are semi-structured (Rathbun, 2008), with a focus on the actors’ vision of equality, their opinion on the chosen reform and, for the regional actors, their administrative and pedagogical enactment. At the national level, I talk to political party representatives, to influence groups such as teachers’ and heads of schools’ trade unions and parents’ associations, and to researchers and think tanks, whose expertise has been considered in the process of policy making. At the regional level, I will reach the minister of education of the Land in Germany and the recteur in France and in both countries those responsible for the implementation of policies, the so-called Projektträger and comités de pilotage. The data is examined with discourse analysis methods. This methodology is particularly relevant in qualitative work (Johnstone, 2008). According to Bormann its use is also very adequate in the educational governance sector (2014). The interviews are prepared taking into consideration that they are analysed through this lens, following the advice of King, Horrocks and Brooks (2019).

Drawing on Dubet’s and Ball's work, I categorize the ideological trends that influenced German and French politicans during the policy making process of Schule macht stark and the new version of the Politique d’éducation prioritaire. In France, politicians commonly limit the definition of equality to the equality of opportunity. Equality of results on the other hand is rarely mentioned in political discourse. Through documents and the literature, I link this French conception of equality to the specificities of its educational system. There, some tracks are qualified as “elitist” and supposed to form the future leaders of the nation. Some political stakeholders argue that social reproduction can be avoided if children with disadvantaged social backgrounds can also access these tracks. In Germany, however, the educational system is very different and so is its political discourse on equality in education. Actors in the political sphere discuss the merit of different tracks (mehrgliedriges System) sorting the children at a young age (ten year old). This debate focuses on achieving equality of results rather than emphasizing equality of opportunity as in France. The recent reform Schule macht stark which resembles the French Politique d’éducation prioritaire because it underlines the importance of equality of opportunity reveals a new focus of the debate at the national level in Germany. In this paper, I hope to understand how conceptions of equality in political discourse shape the differences between the policies in the two countries.

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