Education: all equal?

Education and social reproduction

When we speak of educational inequalities, we often think of educational institutions such as schools. Although adorned with the French republican motto "Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité", it has to be said that just because education in public schools and establishments is free and compulsory up to the age of 16, this does not mean that equality has been achieved.

Where we would like to believe that school frees us from our family circumstances and puts everyone on an equal footing, we should not forget that each individual is also constrained by the environment from which he or she comes, particularly our family. 

The sociological phenomenon of "social reproduction" proposed by Pierre Bourdieu and Jean-Claude Passeron in Les Héritiers, shows that the social position of parents constitutes an inheritance for their children. This reproduction can also be seen in professions. According to INSEE, in 2014, 47% of the sons of senior executives were themselves senior executives, compared with less than 10% of the children of blue-collar workers, for example.

Verbalising the educational project through the choice of first name

As a result of this observation, it is common to refer to socio-professional category (CSP) when imagining a child's educational and employment trajectory. Olivier Marty suggests focusing more on the educational project that parents have for their child, rather than their CSP. For example, parents who tend to come from a high socio-professional category, but who don't have any concrete plans for their child, will have a child who has difficulty materializing this plan through educational and employment choices. On the other hand, in the case of parents from a more modest social class, but who have ambitions and a strong project for their child, the latter will find it easier to take hold of it and carry it out. In other words, the social background of a child only has an impact on his or her educational status through the parents' educational project.

We still need to define what we mean by this "educational project". What does it mean to have a project for your child? It could represent expectations in terms of self-fulfilment, well-being, status or a particular job. In his work, Olivier Marty has chosen to focus on one variable: the first name. It is said to be a more or less conscious expression of the parents' socio-educational intentions. This is reflected in the work of Baptiste Coulmont, sociologist, professor at the École normale supérieure Paris Saclay and researcher at the Institut des sciences sociales du politique, who conducted a study that cross-referenced first names and baccalaureate results between 2012 and 2020.

One difficulty: having a project that's out of sync with the environment

The typical ideal studied here matches an only child seeking to become what is expected of him or her. One of the problems encountered is that parents' expectations may be out of sync with the environment in which the child is growing up (school, encounters, etc.). But when you're out of sync with your environment, it's hard to become yourself. This is the main inequality facing children. Either the parents' project fits in with the environment and the means at their disposal, and all that's left to do is to carry it out with ease, or the road ahead will be longer and more difficult.

This project of "becoming oneself" means the parental self, i.e. the primary socialization carried out by the parents. The project may enter into dissonance with secondary socialization processes such as dating, long-time friendships, etc.

School, one instrument among others for self-actualization

Ultimately, then, school is just one instrument among many to help children realize their parents' ambitions. A child may succeed at school because his parents put pressure on him, which can be seen both through the prism of parental support, but also through the prism of suffering because of that same pressure. Other students will succeed at school, because there's a match between the educational project and their environment.

Finally, inequality at school can be seen above all as inequality in the face of the pressures exerted by the family as part of the educational project. The child thus has the onerous task of becoming who he or she is, which is all the more difficult when the parents' ambitions are high and at odds with the environment. So, not everyone is equal in the process of becoming oneself, even though the school provides a common foundation.

Further research

It goes without saying that, in the context of this research, there are many presuppositions, such as family patterns, place among siblings... The idea that parents would verbalise their educational project in the form of the first name they choose to give their child is, in the end, only one indicator among others to be studied. Whether this variable is statistically representative remains to be verified by further research.