Breaking the Republican mold: French independent schools and agonistic pluralism amidst Franco-conformity*

Abstract

The modern French school system was established in the late nineteenth century upon an acculturating, assimilationist, and secular ideology of making “French people French” and emphasizing unity over cultural diversity. Thus, most scholarship on the French education system aptly highlights the system's French Republican “mold” characteristics—hyper-centralization, Franco-conformity, and “Republican sanctuary”—even if adherence to the mold is not always achieved. However, French hors contrat or independent schools are afforded significant freedoms in terms of curriculum, pedagogy, admittance criteria, and the incorporation of religion. These independent schools represent a veritable rainbow of ethical and educational perspectives that break from the French Republican schooling mold. Drawing upon seven months of ethnographic research in a variety of French independent schools, I suggest that these schools’ existence illustrate flexibility and plasticity within the otherwise monolithic French education system, collectively pointing to a surprising form of agonistic pluralism on the margins of French Republicanism.