Equal Opportunities or Equal Achievement in Higher Education?

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

Montpellier, March 5-6, 2020

Important: the call for papers is located at the bottom of the page

Summary

In order to carry out a collaborative analysis of the issues related to "equal opportunities" at the university in France (Dubet, 2012) and in other university systems, it is planned to organize an international symposium to compare the approaches of legality. Is it preferable to aim for equality of opportunity, which concerns the starting situation or the outcome (Dubet and Duru-Bellat, 2004, p.114) or places (Dubet, 2011, p.32). summed up in terms of success because she is interested in the outcome of the curriculum? Because of its importance and timeliness, this symposium will be open to research specialists in the humanities and social sciences (SHS). The aim is to understand how different countries understand the question of the performance of their higher education with regard to the reduction of inequalities. It will be necessary to analyze the various measures of superior policy taken to reduce inequalities as well as the mechanisms put in place for this purpose.

"Equality of opportunity" is part of the idea, spread since the eighteenth century in Europe, that there is equality of rights between human beings. This possibility is closely linked to the education system and its organization. It also became a goal for the political, economic and social systems of the late twentieth century when they began to move towards a "knowledge society" (Bouchet, 2005, pp. 21-25). . In order to understand why the concept of equal opportunities is so successful in official injunctions, a multidisciplinary and comparative approach will be favored. Limited to one hundred and fifty participants over two days, the symposium should provide an overview of the issue of reducing inequalities in higher education at European and global level.

Is this concept of equal opportunity widespread in many states? What place does it occupy in defining the aims of educational systems? Does the performance of these systems depend on achieving this goal? Does its shaping and in practice only concern political, economic and social strategies, or are the organizational modes and the pedagogy of higher education an important part of it? How does this objective influence the strategies, the governance dynamics of the education systems and the action of the various stakeholders, in particular teacher-researchers (EC)? Are there changes in organizational mechanisms that have effects in pedagogical practices?

Pedagogy was not necessarily the first concern of the universities over the long period stretching from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the nineteenth century, which marks a break with the monastic model. The design introduced by Humboldt gives priority to research and creates the double competence of the teacher-researcher whose recruitment and career can be carried out in France only by decisions of peers more familiar with the research questions that with those of teaching. This endogamic functioning resists rather badly the emancipatory thrust of the late 1960s when at the end of the twentieth century students and students enter large numbers in higher education. We can then speak of a "mass university" (Boyer and Coridian 2001, Felouzis 2003). But if there are many called, there are far fewer elected (Beaud, 2003). Numerous attempts are made to enable success in the first few crucial years (Consensus Conference "Success and Failure in Higher Education: What Lights for Research?", Paris, Ministry of Higher Education, IFE: December 15 and 16, 2015). Studies have been conducted, particularly in France on the "success in licensing" (Annoot and Étienne, 2012), but it is difficult to obtain overall results, although some local data can show spectacular results that do not s' do not observe at the country level. The creation of University Services of Pedagogy (SUP), currently 33 in France joined in a network (www.reseausup.fr consulted on November 10, 2018) is experiencing a certain development but rare assessments of their reach to teachers-researchers and their effects on practices were produced (Cosnefroy 2015, Demougeot-Lebel and Perret 2011, Bailly, Demougeot-Lebel and Lison 2015).

This question of equality seems to be treated more at a pedagogical level than at a structural level and at a higher education level, despite works such as that of Beaud (2003) which established the reasons for the massive failure of the "new students". . The idea of making the accessibility of knowledge accessible to as many people as possible accompanies the promotion of training devices that integrate digital technology with an international opening, but e-learning or "e-learning" devices, MOOCs or "free online courses" and massive "succeed one another without evaluations still establishing their effect in the fight against inequalities. Involved or not in the devices of assistance to the success, some teacher-researchers took initiatives to adapt to their public. Pedagogical practices and the activity of higher education teachers are still unknown, despite some recent work on the subject (Annoot and Fave-Bonnet, 2004, Duguet and Morlaix, 2013, Viaud, 2015, Étienne, Annoot and Biaudet, 2018). Developing this research is an issue, especially by focusing on neo-professionals. If a better knowledge of the profession of teacher-researcher seems to be essential to contribute to the formation and the social and intellectual emancipation of the students (Annoot, 2014), the conduct of a reflection on the definition of a university education really democratic is no less important.

Axes of the conference

The call for participation requires the inclusion in one of the four axes chosen: educational, political, economic and social, socio-cultural.

1. What pedagogical resources should be developed to establish a "chance" equality that ideally leads to "equality of places" according to the proposals of Dubet (2011) or, according to this same analysis, equality thought "in terms of discrimination and unfair treatment minorities deprived of their chances of succeeding?
2. Political discourse and action on equal opportunities evolve according to social issues. Indeed, a plurality of political actors claims very heterogeneous interests (promoting or curbing an increase in equal opportunities, even denouncing this objective). To anticipate societal crises, states are constantly trying to legislate. Here, it will be necessary to study the various bodies of legislation (European and global) that define and specify the policy of equal opportunities or the reduction of inequalities to the extent that it is an explicit objective. Is it possible and appropriate to place in their context the trajectories of political systems that introduce, mobilize and value the concept of equal opportunities or similar concepts? What analyzes of the retroactive effects of these equal opportunities policies can be made on the societal architecture in the countries that have embarked on this path? How to apprehend and evaluate the organizational mechanisms that have gradually been put in place with their successes and failures?
3. The socio-economic objective pursued by the introduction of the concept of equal opportunities in the education system is to create a space for the selection of the most suitable persons to occupy the most qualified positions in their respective fields according to their areas of excellence regardless of their social or economic background. This has been called "meritocracy" (Young, 1958, Saint Martin, 2005, Daverne-Bailly, 2012) and the role of higher education would be to ensure its smooth functioning by choosing the best in an ideal world where everyone could compete. In this perspective, the competitiveness of each national productive system is closely linked to that of the education system. To analyze the interactions between the two systems of higher and economic, it is then necessary to focus on the couple "university-economy". How to identify the actors who favor the creation of "bridges" between the university and the economic world? Do these bridges emerge from the institutional specificities of socio-economic milieus or initiatives of higher education or from their cooperation? How do local actors integrate equal opportunities measures into their collective strategies?
4. The presence of students from different socio-cultural contexts raises issues with respect to the capacity of higher education systems to ensure effective equality of opportunity despite cultural differences. If we take the example, in the European area, first- or second-generation immigrant students, they are affected by particularly chaotic schooling: they are twice as concerned about early school leaving (OECD, 2015). But it is not only about them and this axis will be of interest to students who are more oriented in short vocational courses. Why can they not consider long schooling and are they relegated far from higher education or sentenced, when they succeed, to premature failure or abandonment, like holders of vocational baccalaureate in France? How to take into account and compensate for the discrimination suffered by these young people? Is it possible to envisage, if not an inventory, at least a list and a combination of inequalities of gender, visible or linguistic minority, financial income, housing, distance from teaching places or situation of handicap? What initiatives and innovations have led to successes in this area?

Conference proceedings

D1 Morning: Opening of the conference and interventions of the institutions as partners
Opening lecture: François Dubet (subject to reservations): reduce inequalities between social positions or promote equal opportunities for all to access all social positions?
Meal
D1 Afternoon: Communication Workshops and Symposia 1
Pause
Communications Workshops and Symposiums 2
(Optional on registration) Visit of Montpellier and gala dinner (not included in the registration)

D2 Morning: Round Table moderated by Richard Étienne: equality in higher education between utopia and concrete solutions
Pause
Communications Workshops and Symposiums 3
Meal
D2 Afternoon: Communication Workshops and Symposia 4
Closing conference by Emmanuelle Annoot, a great witness: from the search for equality to its effective implementation, the challenges of higher education at the political, pedagogical, cultural and socio-economic levels.

Call for papers

Proposals for papers and symposiums (short of 3 lectures or length of 6) will be open from 1 September to 31 October 2019 on https://egalisup.sciencesconf.org and they must be part of one of the 4 axes of symposium. Answers will be communicated before November 20th to allow registration with a reduced registration fee.

Registration fees
Students: 30 euros until November 30, 2019 then 50 euros
Other participants: 80 euros until 30 November 2019 then 120 euros
A reduction of 10 euros is granted to any person presenting a certificate of his belonging to one of the partners of the conference.
ATTENTION: the number of registrations is limited to 150.

Symposium website: https://egalisup.sciencesconf.org
Contact: egalisup@sciencesconf.org

Equal opportunities or equal success in higher education?

Montpellier (France)

Thursday 5 and Friday 6 March 2020

Call for papers and symposia

Presentation of the symposium on the site: https://egalisup.sciencesconf.org

Type of Contributions - Two forms of contributions may be submitted:

 Individual communications

Individual communications, grouped a posteriori in workshops by the organizing committee, may be presented by one or more persons. Fifteen minutes are devoted to each presentation. Each person can present, at most, two communications. The workshops will be led by a person in charge of the regulation.

Symposiums

Symposia are short (90 minutes - 3 papers) or long (180 minutes - 5 or 6 papers). The contributions of a symposium are articulated around a common problematic and a framing text written by the symposium organizer who acts as moderator but who can be one of the speaker (s). He is also responsible for deciding whether to hold a final debate with a discussant. Each symposium brings together authors from at least 3 different institutions and 2 different countries.

Request

Each contribution or symposium must belong to one of the four axes presented in the argument:

1. Pedagogical resources to be developed to establish an equality of "chances" which ideally leads to "equality of places", according to Dubet's proposals (2011), or equality thought "in terms of discrimination and unfair treatment of private minorities of their chances of succeeding?

2. Political discourse and action on equal opportunities and their evolution according to social issues.

3. The socio-economic objective pursued by introducing the concept of equal opportunities into the education system at the level of higher education.

4. Inclusive practices to answer the question of the presence of students from different socio-cultural backgrounds and their "success".

Submission dates

There are two submission deadlines, up to October 31, 2019, for those interested in a response given before November 20, 2019, and until December 15, 2019, with a response to January 31, 2020, in case of extension (limitation to 150 participants).

Submission of papers and symposia

Individual papers will include a title, an abstract of up to 300 words and 5 keywords. They will be deposited on the site of the conference by choosing one of the 4 axes: https://egalisup.sciencesconf.org.

The symposia managers will also have to submit a presentation text of 600 words maximum that will highlight the coherence of the issue and the logic of articulation between the various papers forming a symposium. For the symposia, it is the person in charge of the coordination who is in charge to collect the different proposals of the various interventions (with the name of the authors) as well as the text of framing and the possible discussants then to deposit them on the site by choosing one of the 4 axes: https://egalisup.sciencesconf.org. These documents will be made anonymous by the organizer of the conference to authorize the expertise. Authors who communicate at a symposium should not submit their papers directly.

Evaluation criteria

Individual proposals and symposia will be evaluated anonymously by two members of the Scientific Committee based on the following criteria:

• relevance (link with the theme and the chosen focus of the conference);

• conceptual framework and problematization (theoretical framework, questions, objectives, key references);

• procedures (collection, corpus, instruments, analyzes);

• inputs (results, findings, perspectives).

Accueil le 5 mars à partir de 9 heures Jardin d’hiver, ouverture du colloque à 10 heures : Auditorium

Ateliers et symposiums – séance 1 – l’ordre de passage sera déterminé par la ou le responsable

Ateliers et symposiums – séance 2 – l’ordre de passage sera déterminé par la ou le responsable

6 mars

Ateliers et symposiums – séance 3 – l’ordre de passage sera déterminé par la ou le responsable

Ateliers et symposiums – séance 4 – l’ordre de passage sera déterminé par la ou le responsable