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RESEARCH PRODUCT

La démocratisation de l'enseignement en France : polémiques autour d'une question d'actualité

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Duru-Bellat Marie, Kieffer Annick.- The democratization of education in France: controversy over a topical question The question of the democratization of education in France has been studied many times. It remains open, however, since the facts themselves are constantly changing and the methods used to examine the question vary widely, reflecting the different notions of equality of opportunity on which they are based. This article analyses the change in inequalities for the generations born from the start of the century up to the 1960s, using the FQP (training and vocational qualification) surveys and the most recent panel survey of first-year secondary school pupils of the Education Ministry. The results reveal a weakening of the link between social origins and access to the different levels of the education system, though this development is less marked the higher up the school system. Education as a « commodity » has become more widely distributed, but the social inequalities in competition for access to particular levels are stable and are tending to be concentrated at the levels which still confer social prestige or «distinction ». Regarding the influence of family background, the effect of the parents' socio-occupational category appears to be increasing in relation to their educational level; in particular, the specific effect of having a mother in employment has become larger. These findings are compared with the most recent European level analyses.