The French School System and the Universalist Metanarrative (1880–2000s): Some Reflections about So-Called Explanatory Historical Notions Such as ‘La Forme Scolaire’

Abstract

This article aims to question the relevance of notions such as ‘la forme scolaire’ in the account of the French state action in keeping up with the development of mass schooling, over a long historical process (from the late nineteenth century to the present day). Through its origin, this model is linked to a Universalist philosophical option that gives the school the responsibility to build not only the French nation, but also almost all humankind (Alfred Fouillée), in a Republican school metanarrative frame. This metanarrative and its philosophical principle entered a crisis when Universalism appeared to involve strong social segregation, and when colonialism was in a certain sense identified with Universalist philosophy. After first defining ‘la forme scolaire’ (and other closely related notions) and outlining three main French school history periods, the article questions what the forme scolaire explanatory and critical power is, its true limits, and what alternative concepts and perspectives are at our disposal. In this way, the alternatives discussed are the postmodernist positions, and that of Michel Foucault. More complex than the authors he inspired, Foucault can open the way to a perspective of school form renewal, free of the illusions of metanarrative and Universalist philosophy, based on a well-tempered multiplicity and a deliberately pluralistic but coherent philosophy (Michel Fabre).