France

 **__ The Teaching of Civics in France __**

** by Naomi Karavani **

France is a semi-presidential republic in which the president and prime minister share responsibility. Geographically it includes metropolitan France (which borders the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean, Germany, Spain, Andorra, Monaco, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Italy and Belgium) and several territories overseas ( // departements et territoires d'outre-mer // ) such as Martinique and the island of Réunion. Five of these territories are officially par t of France and hav e parliamentary representation. France has the fifth largest economy in the worldand enjoys a high standard of living witha very advanced universal health care system, and one of the highest averages of life expectancy in the world. It also has the third largest military in the world.
 * Country Overview **

Metropolitan France has an identity deeply rooted in history and the visual and literary culture it produced. Famous cave paintings are evidence of early human occupation during the Upper Paleolithic. It experienced Ancient Greek colonization along the Mediterranean and inland. In 125 BC, it became part of the Roman Empire as the province of Gaul. During the Middle Ages Charlemagne, a French King, founded an empire in the immediate areas surrounding France in Europe. During the seventeenth century, King Louis IX united France's disparate regions and started the process of centralization which was to have profound effects on the population. During this period Paris was established as the capital of culture and commerce. During the 18th century, France experienced a flowering of intellectual achievement, known as the Enlightenment, in which Jean Jacques Rousseau was a major figure. In 1789, a popular revolution overthrew the monarchy. There were many revolutions since, which formed new republics. Now France is on its Fifth Republic since 1958. In the 19th and 20th centuries France built one of the largest empires in the world of which it still has remnants in the //departements d'outre-mers.//

There are about 63.1 million people living in Metropolitan France and about 2.6 million living in the //departements.// France has a long history of immigration starting with about 5 million Europeans (such as Italians, Portuguese, and Spaniards) immigrating to France at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. After World War II France experienced another large wave, about equal to the former, of immigration of North African and Sub-Saharan African people, mostly from former colonies. A significant number of Chinese and Vietnamese immigrants also arrived in France in the past few decades. Immigration from other European countries continues on par with immigration from non-European countries. It is illegal to collect data based on ethnicity or background in France so there is some difficulty in representing the make-up of the population. Today about 5 million people live in France that are foreign born, of which 2 million received citizenship. It is estimated that 1/10 to 1/3 of the population is of foreign descent.




 * Context **

The educational system in Metropolitan France and the //departements// is highly centralized. At the completion of //lycée,// the French equivalent to high school (though it only lasts three years,) all students receive a //baccalauréat// which is based on standardized achievements. Higher education is public and sometimes is preceded by a year of preparation after the //lycée.//

Civic and Moral education was instituted at the same time as public education was standardized in the 1880's. It had a dual objective to teach the students the rights of the French citizen in conjunction with moral instruction. It was to substitute for religious curriculum which was outlawed in schools. Civic education waned in importance in subsequent years. In 1948, one hour every two weeks was dedicated to "instruction civique" at the //lycée// level and was generally ignored. In 1985, a long term coherent program for citizenship education, "education civique," was put forward for the école maternelle (primary school) to the collège (middle school), but not the //lycée.//


 * Subject Content Standards **

In 1999, civic education was extended to the //lycée// with a structured program entitled Éducation civique, juridique, et sociale (Civic, legal, and social education; henceforth ECJS) for two hours every month. In each year of ECJS students are encouraged to discuss the following: 1st grade (15-16 years old) "from social life to citizenship", 2nd grade (16-17) "institutions and practices of citizenship", 3rd grade (17-18), "citizenship and the test of a changing world." The division of these subjects into three years serve to analyze citizenship from different perspectives. The text recommends themes and recommends that the teacher choose what the content should be for these themes. There are suggestions of how to approach questions. The emphasis is on pedagogy, however, and not content. The purpose of ECJS is to engage students to act as citizens through debate and reflecting rather than absorb information. The intention is to promote engagement and combat rising alienation and violence among youth.


 * Materials **

An official text was published in 1999 for ECJS. Pamphlets are published periodically which include current events and issues that suitable for discussion within the framework and which address questions of ECJS. The 1999 text encourages teachers to allow students to talk about what interests them as well as current events.Teachers and academies publish non-official websites which address questions related to ECJS such as this one from the académie of Lille (an administrative region of schools): http://www4.ac-lille.fr/~ecjs/article.php3?id_article=45. This site suggests the use of the film "Bamako" to deal with questions of globalization and the relationship between developed countries and the Third World. Tutiaux and Ruget call attention to the shortcomings of the absence of standardized content in the civic education curriculum. The very basic theme of citizenship is often overlooked in favor of questioning morality and behavior.


 * Nature of Curriculum **

Tutiaux points out that the curriculum of ECJS is at tension with the traditional curriculum in French schools. It promotes a "critical education" that is focused on the "autonomy" of the student to create knowledge by reflecting on his or her own experiences. Traditional pedagogy reigns in the French school system as knowledge is viewed as "scientific" and fixed "truth." Formal lectures are the standard. The procedural methods of liberal education are encouraged through discussion of subjects and acting as a citizen. It would seem that ECJS would work within the framework of multicultural education since it promotes the understanding of the "other," and refers to different kind of citizenships, based on students' own understanding. However, the understanding of citizenship is still too legalistic to confront multiculturalism in France. That France refuses to officially recognize different groups by religion or ethnicity impedes the conversation about how it is a pluralistic society. Rather the idea of French citizenship is one in which the private identity (ethnic, religious, sexual, etc.) of the person is hidden and irrelevant unless it is reflective of the ideals of the Republic. Nonetheless, there are suggested themes of "minorities' rights" which may lead to some discussion about pluralism and tough on students' own experience of marginalization or feeling of belonging. The familiarity which students are encouraged to gain with institutions of the French government and French society follow the republican model, however, the emphasis on this is marginal.


 * Main Issues and Challenges **

For one, since the curriculum shakes the very foundations upon which the rest of the curricula is structured, there is a problem in engaging in the type of debate and reflection that ECJS promotes. Teachers are unprepared for such progressive learning. However, this may provide an impetus to incorporate more progressive modes of learning and teaching into a more traditional format. Furthermore, teachers have little background in political science, in general, and therefore lack the content knowledge required to address themes of ECJS.

Though France is a very pluralistic society, there are no legal distinctions between race, ethnicity, or religion, etc. This is reaffirmed in legislation from the Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789 where the nation is dependent on the collective citizenry. In the 1958 constitution this was also declared and in 1978 it was made officially illegal to collect data about people based on race, ethnicity, or religion. In 2005, there were riots that broke out around the country in what many believe to be the poorest areas of France, in the suburbs of major cities, racked by unemployment, and victim to police brutality. These riots were among most immigrant youth of North African and Sub Suharan African descent. Following these riots, there was still a resistance to multiculturalism and the idea of the French citizen before the color-blind law was still maintained. France developed, in its stead, a language that would provide some help to minorities such as " // zones d'éducation prioritaire," // which delineates areas that have high unemployment and large immigrant communities //. // There are many efforts to provide more funding to ZEP schools and allow students from these areas to enter elite institutions of higher education. President Sarkozy has recently made efforts to break the "taboo" and appointed a Muslim governor, for the express purpose of ensuring that the elites of the country reflect the society. Nonetheless, French people, in general, are still allergic to multiculturalism. ECJS would have to present a more critical and more radical framework to deal with the problems confronting French citizenship today.

In the absence of any official, national discourse on a plurality of cultures, only one culture can thrive, that is French culture. Even European immigrant families that have been in France for more than two generations sometimes experience that they are outsiders of French culture. Immigrants arriving in the past few decades would have an even harder time relating to a deeply embedded culture, especially without the acknowledgment of their cultures. In 2007, President Sarkozy planned to restrict immigration based on the newcomer's understanding of French language, culture, and history. This legislation clearly upholds that there is a French culture that needs to be maintained and that is under threat by immigrants, who implicitly come with an unworthy, hidden culture. The ban of wearing the veil to school also attempts to conceal the culture of others. Though the 1789 Declaration may provide an understanding of citizenship that is at odds with multiculturalism for the sake of the Republic, it inadvertently lays the foundation for the unquestioned hegemony of French culture in France. It is important that the culture of students' be taken seriously within ECJS, so that they will be motivated to participate in French society rather than being alienated by it.

Consideri_ng the problems facing citizenship in France today, it is troubling that the ECJS curriculum provides little more than themes and suggestions for teachers. There is no standardization in the face of more widespread problems such as apathy, alienation, and violence.


 * Resources **

Blanquer, J. (2011). Programme d'enseignement d'éducation civique, juridique et sociale en classe de première - MENE1109954A - Ministère de l'éducation nationale. //Ministère de l'éducation nationale//. http://www.education.gouv.fr/cid56295/mene1109954a.html

Blee, H, and McClosky, A. (2003) Perspectives on the Provision of Education for Citizenship in Scotland and France, Including a Small-Scale Comparative Study of Pupil Experience in Brittany and Scotland European Conference of Educational Research, Hamburg Education-line. pp 18 September 2003. __ [|www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/00003495.htm] __ __ []  __

Jennings, Jeremy. (2000) “Citizenship, Republicanism and Multiculturalism in Contemporary France.” British Journal of Political Science, 30, pp. 575-597.

Joppke, Christian. (2007) Transformation of Immigrant Integration: Civic Integration and Antidiscrimination in the Netherlands, France, and Germany, World Politics,59: 2, January 2007, pp. 243-273 Ruget, Vanessa. (2006) The Renewal of Civic Education in France and in America: Comparative Perspectives, The Social Science Journal. 43. pp 19-34.

Tutiaux-Guillon, Nicole. (2002) Civic, Legal and Social Education in French Secondary School: Questions About a New Subject, Civic and Economic Education in Europe, Online Journal for Social Sciences and their Didactics. pp 1 February 2002. http://www.jsse.org/2002/2002-2/pdf/tutiaux-france-2-2002.pdf