Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T21:21:53.889Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Primary School Teachers in Nineteenth-Century France: A Study of Professionalization Through Conflict

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 February 2017

Peter V. Meyers
Peter V. Meyers*
Affiliation:
Department of History at North Carolina A & T State University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Over the past few decades, scholars have often considered many of the professions to be the natural offspring of the global processes of modernization. Countless studies relate professional development to the broader currents of technological change or structural differentiation. Moreover, since the professions were seen as having a common parentage, much research has been devoted to identifying the characteristics and developmental patterns that all of them shared.

Type
Articles
Information
History of Education Quarterly , Volume 25 , Issue 1-2 , Spring-Summer 1985 , pp. 21 - 40
Copyright
Copyright © 1985 by History of Education Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Notes

1. Klegon, Douglas, “The Sociology of Professions: An Emerging Perspective,” Sociology of Work and Occupations, 5, n. 3 (August, 1978):262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. Cholvy, Gérard, “Le Conflit pour le controle de l'école dans l'Hérault 1866–1890,” Annales du Midi, 87, n. 124 (October-December, 1975):477.Google Scholar

3. Viguerie, J., L'Institution des enfants: l'éducation en France, 16e–18-siècles (Paris, 1978), p. 58.Google Scholar

4. cited in Gontard, Maurice, L'enseignement primaire en France de la Révolution à la loi Guizot (Paris, 1959), p. 313.Google Scholar

5. Ibid., p. 6.Google Scholar

6. Ibid., p. 16. Also Julia, Dominique, “L'enseignement primaire dans le diocèse de Reims à la fin de l'ancien régime,” Annales historique de la Révolution française, n. 200 (1970):277 reports that, to the curé, the teacher is “above all a clerc who helps him in his ministerial task.” Google Scholar

7. Viguerie, , p. 131.Google Scholar

8. Julia, Dominique, “L'enseignement primaire dans le diocèse de Reims à la fin de l'ancien régime,” Congres national des Sociétés savantes, t. 1 (Reims, 1970):423.Google Scholar

9. See Moody, Joseph N., French Education Since Napoleon (Syracuse, New York, 1978) and Prost, Antoine, Histoire de l'enseignement 1800–1967 (Paris, 1968).Google Scholar

10. Meyers, Peter V., “Professionalization and Societal Change: Rural Teachers in 19th Century France,” Journal of Social History, 9, n. 4 (Summer, 1976):542–558.Google Scholar

11. de Bertier de Sauvigny, Guillaume, The Bourbon Restoration (Philadelphia, Pa., 1966). Translated by Case, Lynn M. Google Scholar

12. Prost, , p. 180.Google Scholar

13. Lorain, Paul, Tableau de l'instruction primaire en France d'après des documents authentiques (Paris, 1837), p. 400.Google Scholar

14. Anon, ., “Tarn-et-Garonne,” Manuel général de l'instruction primaire, series 2, 3(1843); 206. Journal hereafter referred to as MGIP.Google Scholar

15. L'Echo de l'instituteur (November, 1845).Google Scholar

16. Archives Nationales F17 10308, petition from the Seine-Inférieure, May 19, 1848. (Hereafter referred to as AN.) Google Scholar

17. AN F17 10300, petition from the Marne, , Jan. 20, 1849.Google Scholar

18. AN F17 10302, petition from the Oise, 1847.Google Scholar

19. AN F17 10309, undated letter from a teacher, (Probably from the late 1840s).Google Scholar

20. Overall, in 1844, 43% of almost 28,000 lay instituteurs teaching in villages and towns of less than 6000 population were lay clerics. This figure is somewhat deceptive since the process of disengagement had barely begun in the North and Northeast. For example, in the dozen departments of the Marne, Haute-Marne, Meurthe, Meuse, Aisne, Ardennes, Oise, Bas-Rhin, Moselle, Somme, Seine-et-Marne and Côte d'Or, almost 90% of the 7590 lay teachers were also lay clerics. Eliminating these departments from the national picture reveals that in the rest of France, only about 25% were clerics in 1844. AN F17 10397–10404.Google Scholar

21. AN F17 10300, petition from the Marne, , July 6, 1848.Google Scholar

22. From 1843 to 1864, the number of parochial schools rose from 827 to 1966 or up to 6% of all boys public schools. By the 1860s, the Brothers probably held about one-third of all urban posts. In some departments, like the Ardeche, they controlled almost all the urban schools. (AN F17 10408, Ardeche, 1860 inspection reports.) See Ministere de l'instruction publique, Statistique comparée de l'enseignement primaire 1829–1877, (Paris, 1880), p. xc. Author hereafter referred to as MIP. Also MIP, Etat de l'instruction primaire en 1864 d'après les rapports officiels des inspecteurs d'académie: Complément de la statistique de 1863, (Paris, 1866), p. 100.Google Scholar

23. MIP, Concours en 1861 (Paris, 1862), p. 54. Entry from the Manche.Google Scholar

24. AN F17 9617, École normale primaire report, October, 1871, the Marne.Google Scholar

25. AN F17 10798, 1861 contest, Bouches-du-Rhône.Google Scholar

26. MIP, Concours, p. 55. Entry from the Indre.Google Scholar

27. Rémond, René, L'anticlericalisme en France de 1815 à nos jours (Paris, 1976), p. 48.Google Scholar

28. Maynes, Mary Jo, “The Virtues of Archaism: The Political Economy of Schooling in Europe, 1750–1850,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 21 (October, 1979):611–625. On the difficult choices parents had to make on how to fit schooling into the family budget, see Maynes, , “Work or School? Youth and the Family in the Midi in the Early 19th Century,” Historical Reflections /Réflexions Historiques, vol. 7, n. 2&3 (Summer-Fall, 1980): 115–134.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29. For an important study of attendance patterns, see Grew, Raymond and Harrigan, Patrick, “La scolarisation,” annales: Economies, Sociétés, Civilisations (forthcoming).Google Scholar

30. See Trenard, Louis, Salvandy en son temps 1795–1856 (Lille, 1968), p. 357.Google Scholar

31. AN F17 9307, Oise, 1839–1840.Google Scholar

32. AN F17 9311, Loire-Inférieure, , 1846; also AN F17 9306, Maine-et-Loire, 1837–1838 reports that Brothers, as opposed to lay teachers, inspired a fear and respect which helped discipline.Google Scholar

33. Valmorin, Charles, L'instituteur et le paysan (Paris, 1872), p. 10.Google Scholar

34. Royer, E.D., Concours ouvert entre les instituteurs publics par arrêté du 12 décembre 1860 (Paris, 1861), p. 25.Google Scholar

35. L'émancipation de l'enseignement (July 1, 1848), petition from Montcénis (Saône-et-Loire).Google Scholar

36. Robert, Charles, De l'ignorance des populations ouvrières et rurales de France et des causes qui tendent à la perpetuer (Montbéliard, 1863), p. 46.Google Scholar

37. Rod Day, C., “The Rustic Man: The French Schoolmaster in the Middle of the Nineteenth Century,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 25 (January, 1983):42, reports that 42% of the 280 essays he studied favored compulsory attendance. This position was especially popular in eastern regions influenced by German practices. Glay, Émile and Champeau, Henry, L'instituteur (Paris, 1928), p. 387 reports that nearly all 8000 teachers who responded to an 1872 inquiry conducted by MGIP on compulsory attendance supported it.Google Scholar

38. Meunier, Louis-Arsene, Du role de la famille dans l'éducation (Paris, 1855), p. 13.Google Scholar

39. Meyers, , “Professionalization.” Also see the new study of Singer, Barnett, Village Notables in Nineteenth Century France: Priests, Mayors, Schoolmasters (Albany, New York, 1983), especially pp. 108–146.Google Scholar

40. Thabault, Roger, Education and Change in a Village Community (London, 1971), p. 120.Google Scholar

41. AN F17 10757, entry to 1861 contest from Indre-et-Loire.Google Scholar

42. AN F17 10758, entry to 1861 contest from Bouches-du-Rhône.Google Scholar

43. In the 1912–13 school year, the lay instituteurs and institutrices conducted 54,593 adult courses and delivered 61,027 speeches. See Petit, Edouard, Rapport sur l'éducation populaire 1912–1913, vol. 17 (Paris, 1913), p. 58.Google Scholar

44. Margadant, Ted W., “Primary Schools and Youth Groups in Pre-War Paris: Les Petites As,” Journal of Contemporary History 13 2, (1978):323–336. Also see Aubry, Marie-Therèse, “Sociétés de tir et de preparation militaire en Meurthe-et-Moselle de 1872 à 1914,” 103 e Congrès national des Sociétés savantes, Vol. 2 (Nancy-Metz, 1978), pp. 135–153.Google Scholar

45. MIP, L'inspection de l'enseignement primaire (Paris, 1900), p. 251. In 1912–1913, teachers supervised 6,587 petites A's plus about another 2000 shooting or sports clubs. See Petit, , p. 59.Google Scholar

46. Revue pédagogique, 2 (1878):574–575.Google Scholar

47. quoted in Association des anciens élèves de l'École normale et des instituteurs du Nord, 11 (1883):338–339.Google Scholar

48. Delmas, André, Mémoires d'un instituteur syndicaliste (Paris, 1979), p. 35.Google Scholar

49. Desprez, Charles, Conferences pédagogiques faites aux instituteurs en 1879, Eure-et-Loir (Chartres, 1879), p. 98.Google Scholar

50. Revue pédagogique (January, 1900):23.Google Scholar

51. Guizot, François, Rapport au Roi (Paris, 1834), pp. 69–72.Google Scholar

52. By 1863, about 50% of the corps of instituteurs were normal school graduates. MIP, Statistique de l'instruction primaire pour l'année 1863 (Paris, 1864), p. 100.Google Scholar

53. Guizot, , pp. 70–71.Google Scholar

54. An F17 10308, petition from Seine-Inférieure, May 19, 1848. Rod Day found that 88% of the teachers he studied complained of low pay. Day, p. 37.Google Scholar

55. Vopa, Anthony La, Prussian Schoolteachers: Profession and Office, 1763–1848 (Chapel Hill, N. C., 1980).Google Scholar

56. Quoted in François Bernard, , et. al., Le syndicalisme dans l'enseignement, 1 (Grenoble, 1966), p. 7.Google Scholar

57. Bourgeoise, M., “Des moyens d'établir parmi les instituteurs l'esprit de corps,” La Tribune (May 5, 1855): 152–153.Google Scholar

58. La Tribune (September 15, 1884):296.Google Scholar

59. quoted in Max Ferré, , Histoire du mouvement syndicaliste révolutionnaire chez les instituteurs des origines à 1922 (Paris, 1955), pp. 39–41.Google Scholar

60. See Congrès regional des instituteurs tenu à Toulouse les 3, 4, et 5 avril 1893, Rapport Général (Toulouse, 1893).Google Scholar

61. Gontard, Maurice, L'oeuvre scolaire de la Troisième République: l'enseignement primaire en France de 1876 à 1914 (Toulouse, n. d.), p. 206.Google Scholar

62. AN C6008.3523, Petitions, 1898–1902.Google Scholar

63. A new pay scale was introduced in 1901. Salary levels varied with length of service and were supplemented by cost of living payments that depended on the population size of the town in which the teacher taught. Housing was usually provided for teachers. Additional money could be earned especially by rural teachers who also served as town clerks. At a time when skilled craftsmen earned 1350–1450F per year, teacher pay ranged from about 1100F for new entrants in a small village to almost 3000F for an experienced master in a large city. See Fortemps, and Veuilleur, Le. Traitements et indemnités du personnell (Paris, 1907) pp. 22–23. and Ministère du travail et de la prévoyance sociale, Salaires et durée du travail, coût de la vie, pour certaines catégoires d'ouvriers en 1906 (Paris, 1907), pp. 22–23.Google Scholar

64. Wishnia, Judith, “French Functionnaires: The Development of Class Consciousness and Unionization 1884–1926,” (Unpublished dissertation, SUNY-Stony Brook, 1978), p. 80 indicates that civil servants were about 4.5% of the population in 1911.Google Scholar

65. Arnaud, Albert, L'instituteur français (Beziers, 1907), p. 10.Google Scholar

66. Fédération des amicales, Septième congrès des amicales d'institutrices et d'instituteurs publics de France et des colonies tenu à Nantes le 7, 8, 9, et 10 août 1911: Compte rendu sténographique (Nantes, 1911), p. 19. Hereafter referred to as A-1911.Google Scholar

67. Ibid., p. 19.Google Scholar

68. Ibid., p. 40 Google Scholar

69. Ibid., p. 5.Google Scholar

70. Ibid., pp. 139–140.Google Scholar

71. Laurin, M.-T., Les Instituteurs et le syndicalisme (Paris, 1908), p. 54. The 1909 Amicale Congress also supported this position.Google Scholar

72. Fédération des amicales, Cinquième congrès des amicales d'instituteurs et d'institutrices publics de France et des colonies, tenu à Clermont-Ferrand les 8, 9, 10, et 11 août 1907: Rapport général (Melun, 1908), p. 230.Google Scholar

73. “Autorité du maître,” La Tribune (December 1, 1886):354.Google Scholar

74. See the case reported in Bulletin bimestriel de l'Émancipation, Syndicat des institutrices et des instituteurs publics des Bouches-du-Rhône (January, 1907):81.Google Scholar

75. Laurin, , p. 54.Google Scholar

76. Fédération des amicales, Quatrième congrès des amicales d'instituteurs et d'institutrices publics de France et des colonies, tenu à Lille les 28, 29, 30, et 31 août 1905: Rapport général (Marseille, 1905), p. 157.Google Scholar