Education systems are “sorting machines” (Domina et al. 2017). By defining and ranking categories of teaching and learning, and sorting individuals into these categories, educational structures contribute to shaping the identity and stratification of modern citizenries. Unsurprisingly, then, the reform of educational structures ranges among the fundamental components of agendas aimed at re-structuring Western European societies after 1945 (Heidenheimer 1997). While reforms were usually contentious and specific outcomes vary, experts, as well as left and centre-right parties agreed that at least some standardisation and de-stratification was necessary for education systems to foster more equal and liberal societies (Furuta 2020). But what about those who disagreed with this vision of society? Do fundamentally different visions of the citizenry also come with different preferences for educational structures? This paper investigates the relationship between visions of the citizenry and educational preferences by focusing on a thus-far often overlooked educational actor: far-right movements. Using qualitative content analysis on an extensive collection of archival documents, we systematically relate the views on educational structures expressed Western European far-right parties as well as by influential German, Italian, and French far-right intellectuals and activists since 1945 with their ideals of society and citizenship. By focusing on the nexus between educational and social structures as seen by one of the most vocal opponents of the post-WII liberal consensus, this paper promises to theoretically refine both our understanding of the relationship between education and citizenship, and of the far right as an educational actor.

Domina, T., Penner, A., and Penner, E. (2017). Categorial Inequality: Schools as Sorting Machines. Annual Review of Sociology 43, 311–30. Furuta, J. (2020). Liberal individualism and the globalization of education as a human right: the worldwide decline of early tracking 1960-2010. Sociology of Education, 93(1), 1–19. Heidenheimer, A. J. (1997). Disparate Ladders. London: Routledge.