Fronti��res, traduction et politiques de la diff��rence : la tache herm��neutique de l����ducation compar��e

Borders, translation and politics of difference: the hermeneutic task of comparative education ?C Governments are making increasing use of international comparisons as a tool to run and reform education systems, through the establishment of competency norms and assessment standards. In light of this trend, this paper wishes not only to reiterate the crucial distinction, made by Max Weber as early as 1922, between scientific research and political action, but also to recall the principles of separation and mediation from which the comparative approach in education derives. The concepts that comprise a language, that are disseminated and become established in a social world, are borne of history, of dynamic uses, and are culturally rooted. By neglecting this social and cultural provenance of words there is a danger that one can end up with a comparability based on functional equivalencies alone; although there are strong pressures in this direction, it is probably the surest way, in the words of Marcel Détienne, of ??comparing the incomparable??. The purely instrumental rationality that favours the spread of such frameworks or interpretative models appears indifferent to questions of meaning and culture, apart from being irrational on an axiological level, if we follow Weber. Strangeness or even ??otherness?? tends to be erased. One wonders therefore what issues are raised for the comparativist when the illusion of spontaneity in translation is reduced to a functional equivalence. In keeping with the researcher??s responsibility to mediate, he/she must promote clarification and mutual understanding (inspired by C. Taylor), replacing the standardisation of words with a critical illumination of the semiotic variations generated by their use.     

Les Disparités d'alphabétisation et de scolarisation en Turquie

The struggle against illiteracy is a problem of great importance in Turkey as in many other countries. In Turkey the democratisation and secularisation of education have been a difficult process. Despite strong educational efforts in recent years, the country still presents various forms of inequality, such as considerable disparities between women and men, between town and country and between different regions. Unequal socio-economic, cultural and educational development, and attachment to cultural traditions are some of the factors that influence these inequalities. At the same time, Turkey is confronted by the sore problem of the education of linguistic minorities (especially the Kurds), who are not officially recognised as the cultural policy of Turkey aims to assimilate them. Thus, in the 1920s the Kurdish language was forbidden along with all languages other than Turkish, the official national language.     

Décentralisation de l’éducation en Afrique francophone de l’Ouest : Réalités et défis au niveau local

THE DECENTRALISATION OF EDUCATION IN WESTERN FRANCOPHONE AFRICA: LOCAL-LEVEL REALITIES AND CHALLENGES – For some years now, the process of decentralisation has been a popular means of reforming the way that public services are administrated. This ambitious and complex means of reform has been embraced by a number of very different countries. However, questions have arisen concerning the ability of the local authorities and schools – two of the main beneficiaries of this reform – to carry out the administrative duties involved. Many doubt that its impact is far-reaching enough. As a result, the IIEP has coordinated a research programme in Western Francophone Africa with the aim of gaining greater insight into the challenges facing local authorities and schools in the context of decentralisation reforms. To a certain extent, the results are discouraging because they show the limits facing those who attempt to implement a policy of decentralisation, although a number of successful examples of innovation do give grounds for hope. For this reason, the results enable us to identify several principles for good practice.     

Scolarisation,cultures et pratiques scolaires au Brésil: Éléments théoriques et méthodologiques d'un programme de recherche

This article concentrates on some considerations concerning the schooling process in Brazil during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Taking as reference the research carried out in the state of Minas Gerais, it particularly focuses on elementary/primary education there. First, it looks at the different schooling models in Brazil during that period of time and argues that educational statistics are one of the most interesting ways to study the representations about this phenomenon. It then looks at the sociocultural consequences of schooling and stresses the importance of educational institutions as a socialisation model for children, young people and society as a whole.     

Mathématiques de la vie quotidienne au Burkina Faso: une analyse de la pratique sociale de comptage et de vente de mangues

Mathematics teaching in Burkina Faso is faced with major challenges (high illiteracy rates, students’ difficulties, and high failure rates in mathematics, which is a central topic in the curriculum). As evidenced in many of these studies, mathematics is reputed to be tough, inaccessible, and far from what students live daily. Students here look as though they are living in two seemingly distant worlds, school and everyday life. In order to better understand these difficulties and to contribute in the long run to a more adapted teaching of mathematics, we tried to document and elicit the “mathematical resources” mobilized in various daily life social practices. In this paper, we focus on one of them, the counting and selling of mangoes by unschooled peasants. An ethnographic approach draws on the observation of the situated activity of counting and selling mangoes (during harvesting) and on “eliciting interviews” of the involved actors. The analysis of results highlights a richness of structuring resources mobilized and distributed through this practice, related to what Lave (1988) call “the experienced lived-in-world” and “constitutive order.” The mathematical resources take the form of “knowledge in action” and “theorems in action” (Vergnaud, Rech Didact Math 10(23):133–170, 1990), embedded in the social, economic, and even cultural structures of actors.     

Esclaves,Militaires et Libéraux: les Chemins de l’Enseignement Mutuel au Brésil (1808–1854)

Mutual/monitorial teaching was officially introduced in Brazil under the “Decree of the First Letters” on 15 October 1827. Such a decree was the first law on National Public Instruction of the Brazilian Empire and proposed the establishment and the adoption of the Lancasterian approach in elementary schools. This study analyses the beginning of the mutual/ monitorial teaching in Brazil between 1815 and 1827 and the political‐administrative obstacles to its implementation from 1827. Such an approach was influenced by the Société pour l’instruction élémentaire, founded in France in 1815 to promote the diffusion of mutual teaching. It also analyses the teachers’ formation based on the theoretical and practical principles of the mutual/monitorial teaching as explained in Baron de Gérando’s book, widely diffused in Latin America, Cours Normal des instituteurs primaires, ou Directions relatives à l’Education Physique, Morale et Intellectuelle dans les Ecoles Primaires (1832).     

L’héritage de la méthode suédoise d’éducation physique en France: les conflits de méthode au sein de l’Ecole normale de gymnastique et d’escrime de Joinville au début du XXème siècle

The Swedish physical education method has had a singular destiny in France. Originally created by the Swedish Per Henrik Ling (1776–1839), it first spread in France thanks to German doctors. From 1902, the Swedish method became the official method of the Ecole normale de gymnastique et d’escrime de Joinville. It caused serious dissension first within the army, between Georges Hébert, a naval officer attempting to spread his own method called ‘Méthode naturelle’, and Emile Coste, a major at Joinville school who was a resolute supporter of Ling’s method; then within Joinville school, where, from 1905, Georges Demeny, renowned physiologist, tried to impose his French method ‘Eclectique’. The three protagonists would use arguments focused on the rationality of the Swedish method to legitimize or criticize it. But this explicit stake based on the validity of the link between a scientific culture – anatomy and physiology – and a physical education method does not mask the implicit stake of real power.     

Trois élèves en difficulté devant des situations de réunion et de complément d'ensembles

The purpose of this research was to improve the understanding of 'problems involving combination and complementation';. We presented four different situations to three children with learning difficulties. An analysis of their initial mental representations, procedures, and reflections provided insight as to their thinking process. These mental representations dealt with numbers. They are first seen as physical objects such as representations of quantities, and this influences the choice of procedures to solve the problem. These processes led to the coordination of numbers and relationships within the proposed situation. This shows the impact of the logico-mathematical relation of inclusion. More economical procedures of counting and mental calculation emerge. Hence, we can distinguish solving from understanding.Racute;SUMacute;. Le but de cette étude vise l'amélioration des connaissances eu égard à la construction d'une compréhension de la résolution des situations de réunion et de complément d'ensembles. Nous avons présenté quatre situations diff'rentes à trois enfants en difficulté d'apprentissage. L'étude de leurs représentations mentales initiales, de leurs procédures et de leurs réflexions nous invitent à en apprécier l'évolution. Ainsi, pour ces élèves, les représentations mentales qui émergent de la situation proposée, portent sur les nombres. Ces derniers sont d'abord vus comme objets physiques, puis comme représentants d'une quantité d'objets, ce qui influence le choix des procédures. Les premières réflexions les invitent à coordonner les nombres et les relations entre eux. Nous voyons apparaître l'impact de la relation logico-mathématique d'inclusion. Des procédures plus économiques de comptage et de calcul mental émergent. Nous pouvons alors distinguer la simple résolution d'un problème de la compréhension de ce type de situation.     

Didactisme et méthode didactique en France: la rationalité de la méthode et l'influence allemande,au début du XXe siècle

The generic term “didactic” has had for a long time in France the rather depreciatory meaning of a formal, expositing method putting the authority of the teacher above active participation of the pupil. Far before the arrival of disciplinary didactics which took place in the 1970s and which acknowledged in France, the German meaning of rational method applied to teaching, there was as early as the beginning of the XXth century a first wave of German Swiss and Belgian influences which enable that underestimated term to regain a rational and reflexive meaning.     

Culture Politique,Scolarisation et Pratiques d’Appropriation: la Méthode Mutuelle dans le Minas Gerais (Brésil) au XIXe Siècle

This contribution deals with the adoption of the Lancasterian Monitorial System of Education in the State of Minas Gerais (Brazil) during the nineteenth century. The authors analyse the adoption of this device in the normalization of educational practices in schools and in the consolidation of the school system in the region. The structure and culture of a society, which still heavily relied on the work of slaves, framed the appropriation of this pedagogical innovation. The ambivalence between the rhetoric of freedom and independence and the search for new disciplinary devices pervaded all educational efforts and it also did so in the process of appropriation of the method. Along these lines, the authors present the discussion of the liberal elites of the region favouring the method, some new devices introduced in the culture of punishment, and the attitudes of the teachers faced with this innovation.     

Greek Day Care Centres' Quality,Caregivers' Behaviour and Children's Development La Qualité des Crèches en Grèce,le Comportement des Institutrices,et le Développement des Enfants La Calidad de las Guarderías Infantiles Griegas,el Comportamiento de las Maestras de Educación Infantil y el Desarrollo de los Niños

The 'global' quality of the caregiving environment for young infants and toddlers in day care centres in Athens, the 'structural' and 'dynamic' features in terms of group size, the adult child ratio, the caregiving style and, finally, the interaction patterns developed between the caregivers and the children, were all factors evaluated for potential developmental effects. Participants in the study were 60 toddlers, experiencing full-time (more than 20 hours/week) day care provision, and for at least 6 months out-of-home care, while attending 25 day care centres located in the greater Athens area. Children's assessments included measures of cognitive, language and socio-emotional development. Interviews and observational techniques were used to assess the quality of the day caregiving environment and the interaction processes between caregivers and the children. Children's development was considered in terms of the quality of out-of-home care experience. It was found that the course of development could be predicted by the overall day care centre quality index as measured by the ITERS scale, with the separate contribution of some other variables according to the examined developmental aspect. Dans le cadre d'une recherche concernant les influences possibles sur le développement des enfants, nous avons étudié les facteurs suivants: l'évaluation 'globale' de la qualité de l'environnement des services de soin et d'éducation dans les crèches d'Athènes, les caractéristiques 'structurelles' et 'dynamiques' concernant la taille du groupe d'enfants en classe, l'analogie institutrices/enfants, le style de soin et de comportement de l' institutrice, enfin, le style d'interaction entre institutrices et enfants. Dans cette recherche ont participé 60 enfants de 18 mois, fréquentant 25 crèches de la région d'Athènes pour plus de 20 heures par semaine et pour une durée d'au moins 6 mois au moment de la recherche. L'appréciation du développement des enfants concernait le domaine cognitif, langagier et socio-émotionel. Pour l'évaluation de la qualité de l'environnement des crèches et les processus d'interaction entre institutrices et enfants, nous nous sommes servi de méthodes d'interview et d'observation. Le développement des enfants a éte´ évalué en fonction de la qualité de l'environnement des crèches. Nous avons conclu que le développement est corrélé avec la qualité globale de la crèche, telle qu'elle a été calculé avec l'échelle ITERS. Par ailleurs, nous avons observé la contribution d'autres variables selon le secteur étudié du développement. La apreciación \"global\" de la calidad del ambiente de la prestación de servicios de cuidados y educación a los niños en las guarderías infantiles de Atenas, las características \"estructurales\" y \"dinámicos\" que conciernen al número de los niños en la clase, a la proporción maestras/niños, al estilo de la prestación del cuidado y del comportamiento de las maestras y, en fin, al esquema de interacción entre maestras y niños han sido los factores que se han examinado en cuanto a su possible influencia sobre el desarrollo de los niños. En nuestra investigación participaron 60 niños de 18 meses de edad que frecuentaban 25 guarderías en la región de Atenas durante más de 20 horas a la semana y por lo menos 6 meses hasta la investigación. La apreciación del desarrollo de los niños se refiere al sector cognitivo, verbal y socio-emocional. Para la evaluación de la calidad del ambiente de las guarderías y para los procedimientos de intercambio entre maestras y niños se han utilizado las técnicas de la entervista y de la observación. El desarrollo de los niños se ha apreciado en relación con la calidad del ambiente de las guarderías. Ha resultado evidente que el curso del desarrollo guarda relación con la calidad general de la guardería, la cual se ha evaluado según la escala ITERS, mientras se ha notado también el aporte de otras variables, según el aspecto del desarrollo estudiado.