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  • Heurs et malheurs du système éducatif en France éd. by Marie-Christine Weidmann Koop
  • Michelle Beauclair
Weidmann Koop, Marie-Christine, éd. Heurs et malheurs du système éducatif en France. AATF, 2018. ISBN 978-0-9885496-8-5. Pp. 180.

Impassioned debates surround the wide-ranging and ambitious educational reforms proposed during the presidency of François Hollande (2012–17) to address mediocre achievement scores, high dropout rates, and one of the widest disparities of any European nation in academic performance between students in middle and upper-class neighborhoods and those in socioeconomically disadvantaged ones. This timely and informative study documents the successes and failures of these measures to improve a system that was traditionally a source of great pride. Weidmann Koop's introduction provides the raison d'être for the 2013 law known as the Refondation de l'École de la République, and her later chapter offers a thorough and frank assessment of the reform's mixed outcomes in its efforts to ensure a more egalitarian, effective educational system. Several articles highlight controversial reforms targeting specific levels of instruction. Rosalie Vermette's essay discusses highly contested attempts to alter France's middle school (collège) curriculum—especially in the area of foreign languages, where French students performed lower than their European counterparts. Samira ElAtia's study traces the challenges of proposing changes to France's iconic Baccalauréat throughout its long history, as well as its evolving role in French society. [End Page 227] Patricia Cummins outlines efforts to internationalize university diplomas and to address the critical lack of access to and funding for higher education to meet the ever-increasing demand. Other essays focus on the problematic rate of academic failure, especially in at-risk areas. Leon Sachs uses film to explore the potentially transformative concept of the multicultural French classroom, not as separated from society, but rather as a place of negotiation between what transpires inside and outside that space. Marie Schein's chapter sheds a positive light on educational initiatives and community partnerships established to foster success among immigrant, migrant, and non-French-speaking children, all of whom have a right to an education in France. In contrast, Samia Spencer's essay sounds a cautionary note for the future of the teaching profession in France, where added responsibilities, stagnant pay, and an increasingly hostile workplace have taken a toll on recruitment, retention, and morale. Finally, Alain-Philippe Durand, Alain Milon, and Charles Norton's chapter, "Pédagogie Hip-Hop Trans-Amérique," stands out as an innovative and promising pedagogical endeavor that uses hip-hop-based education as a means to teach various disciplines and to motivate young students in Parisian suburbs, often with the participation of non-profit associations, city councils, and hip-hop artists themselves. It also serves as an inspiring example of transcontinental collaboration and creativity. With references to research as recent as la rentrée 2017, chapter abstracts in both French and English, a list of abbreviations and acronyms, and tables representing the French and American educational systems, Heurs and malheurs' content is current and readily accessible to advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and teachers of contemporary French cultures for whom this text is an essential read.

Michelle Beauclair
Seattle Pacific University (WA)
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