School of the Nation

Abstract

Since the early 1980s, public schools have been embroiled in an ongoing debate about the strength and h r e prospects of France’s national identity. At the heart of this debate is the perception that cornerstone French values and ideals inherited from the Enlightenment and Revolution are under attack and at risk of giving way. The forces that threaten to subvert France’s commitment to building a secular, rational, progressive and egalitarian community are located both outside and within its borders. The barbarians at the gates are the dangerously permissive ‘Anglo-Saxons’ whose tolerance and support for cultural diversity is seen as contributing to the rise of selfish, divisive, and potentially tribalizing identity demands. The enemies within are postwar immigrant communities. North Africans, who represent the largest ethnic minority population in France, are often singled out as being especially unwilling or unable to integrate into the mainstream of French society. Their presence is typically construed as a problem and an impediment to the smooth functioning of key normalizing institutions such as public schools.