UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Finding One's Place in the Republic: Educating for Citizenship in a Diversifying France Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4nd0z65c Author Nesbitt, Travis Publication Date 2013 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Finding One’s Place in the Republic: Educating for Citizenship in a Diversifying France A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Education by Travis William Nesbitt 2013 © Copyright by Travis William Nesbitt 2013 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Finding One’s Place in the Republic: Educating for Citizenship in a Diversifying France by Travis William Nesbitt Doctor of Philosophy in Education University of California, Los Angeles, 2013 Professor Val D. Rust, Chair The school, France’s traditional vehicle for integrating diverse populations into a national culture and fostering civic participation, has encountered difficulties in fulfilling its central mission as demographic shifts have given rise to competing conceptions of religious, cultural, ethnic, political and national identity. For French society the relevance and adequacy of a universal, liberal, assimilationist approach to integration has come into question. On ii pedagogical and curricular levels, an impersonal “banking model” of instruction and inflexible respect of disciplinary boundaries have impeded civic empowerment. Rooted in the emancipatory and progressive educational theories of Paulo Freire and John Dewey and the multicultural theories of James Banks, this study examines spaces in contemporary France, inside the school and out, where youth of diverse backgrounds are engaging in transformative citizenship education. Within the school, the research put forth here specifically targets history as a discipline that could be uniquely positioned to facilitate transformative citizenship. The study’s findings should ultimately contribute to the establishment of educational structures and curricula that allow all students in heterogeneous societies to work together to express themselves politically and culturally, actively shaping the civic culture while expanding equality, access and participation. iii The dissertation of Travis William Nesbitt is approved. Douglas Kellner Edith Mukudi Omwami Andrea Loselle Val D. Rust, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2013 iv Dedication Parker Palmer observed that “education at its best – this profound human interaction called teaching and learning – is not just about getting information or getting a job. Education is about healing and wholeness. It is about empowerment, liberation, transcendence, about renewing the vitality of life. It is about finding and claiming ourselves and our place in the world” (hooks, 2003, p. 43). This dissertation is dedicated to the special group of friends, family, teachers, students and community members who have empowered and renewed me through education, helping me to find and claim my place in the world. v Table of Contents Chapter 1 - Framing the Study: L’Ecole de la République in the Twenty-First Century .............. 1 Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 The Historical Role of the School in France ....................................................................................... 3 Social, Economic and Political Realties in Contemporary France ....................................................... 8 A Need for Contemporary Research ............................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2 – Grounding the Study: Theoretical Framework and Research Methods ............... 15 Personal Interest ............................................................................................................................ 15 Theoretical Framework .................................................................................................................. 18 James Banks, Multiculturalism and Transformative Citizenship Education ...................................... 18 Paulo Freire, “Conscientization” and Problem-Posing Education .................................................... 20 John Dewey, Progressive Education and Education as Reconstruction ............................................ 22 The Upper-Left Quadrant of Paulston’s Theoretical Map of the Field .............................................. 24 Statement of Problem and Research Questions .............................................................................. 29 Research Sites and Participant Recruitment ................................................................................... 31 2009 Pilot Study in Los Angeles Unified School District ................................................................... 38 Quantitative Methods .................................................................................................................... 41 Qualitative Methods ...................................................................................................................... 43 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................................. 45 Role of Researcher ......................................................................................................................... 48 Limitations of Dissertation ............................................................................................................. 49 Chapter 3 - Re-Imagining Brotherhood: Republican Values and Representations of Nationhood in High School History Textbooks ...................................................................... 50 Contextualizing the Study of History Textbooks .............................................................................. 50 Using Critical Theory to Examine Textbooks ................................................................................... 55 Establishing Specific Inquiry Methods for Textbook Research ......................................................... 56 Results - The revolution of 1789 and the birth of the French nation-state ....................................... 60 Results - The Colonial Experience ................................................................................................... 64 Results - The Current State of Affairs .............................................................................................. 68 Revelations about history education .............................................................................................. 72 Chapter 4 - Positioning the History Classroom: A Laboratory for Civic Participation .............. 75 Standards and guidelines for the teaching of history ...................................................................... 76 Student and teacher perceptions of the role of school ................................................................... 78 Why study history? ........................................................................................................................ 81 Bridging content, civic competence and transformative citizenship? .............................................. 83 The Weight of the Baccalauréat ..................................................................................................... 86 vi School as a Sorting Mechanism ...................................................................................................... 90 The Teacher-Student relationship .................................................................................................. 97 Community .................................................................................................................................. 101 Race and Culture .......................................................................................................................... 105 Educating for Civic Participation ................................................................................................... 110 Prescription for change: Developing the historiographic abilities of students ............................... 115 Chapter 5 – Civil Society: Cultivating Citizenship beyond the State ...................................... 121 SOS Racisme ................................................................................................................................. 121 Conducting Research on SOS Racisme’s Educational Interventions ............................................... 122 The SOS School-based Program – In Theory .................................................................................. 124 The SOS School-based Program – In Practice ................................................................................ 127 Putting the organization’s work in perspective ............................................................................. 130 Unionizing as s student – the FIDL ................................................................................................ 132 “A weekend to change everything” .............................................................................................. 135 The Youth Debate on National Identity ........................................................................................ 140 What role for civil society