Tamaño de fuente:
Religion and laïcité in French catholic-inspired teacher-unionism, 1945-2000
Última modificación: 2017-07-17
Resumen
Traditionally, French teacher-unionism has been associated with laïcité, anticlericalism, or even anti-religious positions. That has been at least the case of the powerful primary teachers’ union SNI during its ealy years of existence (1920s) or during the 1950, or of its federation FEN (Brucy). This position on ‘laïcité’ has been maybe more complex for the largest secondary-teachers’ union, the SNES (Ferhat).
Nevertheless, since the late thirties, a different teacher-unionist sensibility, with catholic roots and militants like Paul Vignaux (Martin), has appeared within education public sector (Georgi, Singer). This sensibility has acknowledged the principle of laïcité (as explicated in the official status of the SGEN) and, in the same time, has refused an anti-religious position. This position has encountered two major difficulties: on one hand, the Catholic Church (Durrieux, Pennetier), on the other hand, some less important teachers’ unions (Frajerman).
This communication will focus on the conceptions of “laïcité” and relation with religions developed by this Christian-leaning teacher-unionism, on how they have distinguished themselves from catholic institutions and the ‘Catholic Church doctrine’ (Launay, Poucet). It will also study the interaction (or the competition) between those teachers-unions and organizations supporting a strong “laic” agenda. Last, it will analysis the various (and sometimes, innovative) conceptions of “laïcité” developed by catholic teachers-unionists. Those issues will be studied through key-moments in French education history, like the 50s, the 1959 law enabling public funding of private schools, and the debate over multiculturalism during the 90s.
Nevertheless, since the late thirties, a different teacher-unionist sensibility, with catholic roots and militants like Paul Vignaux (Martin), has appeared within education public sector (Georgi, Singer). This sensibility has acknowledged the principle of laïcité (as explicated in the official status of the SGEN) and, in the same time, has refused an anti-religious position. This position has encountered two major difficulties: on one hand, the Catholic Church (Durrieux, Pennetier), on the other hand, some less important teachers’ unions (Frajerman).
This communication will focus on the conceptions of “laïcité” and relation with religions developed by this Christian-leaning teacher-unionism, on how they have distinguished themselves from catholic institutions and the ‘Catholic Church doctrine’ (Launay, Poucet). It will also study the interaction (or the competition) between those teachers-unions and organizations supporting a strong “laic” agenda. Last, it will analysis the various (and sometimes, innovative) conceptions of “laïcité” developed by catholic teachers-unionists. Those issues will be studied through key-moments in French education history, like the 50s, the 1959 law enabling public funding of private schools, and the debate over multiculturalism during the 90s.