Review of the ethnographic work Education and Identity in Rural France.

1. EDUCATION AND IDENTITY IN RURAL
FRANCE: THE POLITICS OF SCHOOLING.
Deborah Reed-Danahay. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. 237.
Presented by Jason Watson

2. ➤ Reed-Danahay presents a review of her interviews and studies
of the Auvergne, a minority group located between Puy-de-
Dôme and Puy-de-Sancy, two inactive volcanos that created a
fertile region in central France, west of Lyon.
EDUCATION, IDENTITY, AND SCHOOLING IN RURAL FRANCE

3. EDUCATION, IDENTITY, AND SCHOOLING IN RURAL FRANCE
➤ The Auvergne in the commune of Lavialle in 1980-81, during
Reed-Danahay’s field work, were a farming community,
specializing in Dairy.
➤ The people of the area have a strong individual identity that
defines itself as distinctly separate from the French national
identity.
➤ The Auvergne farmer identity has been navigating the French
education system established since 1881 as the result of the Ferry
Laws. These laws intended to define what it meant to be “French”.
➤ Parents willingly send their children to the school for literacy and
primary education, but resist indoctrination to the French national
identity.

4. CONTEXT
➤ Reed-Danahay was studying the Auvergne commune of
Lavialle after depopulation from redistricting (before 1911)
and the aftermath of World War II (1945).
Year Population
1806 1,287
1856 1,166
1891 1,100
1911 880*
1936 784
1954 662
1968 519
1982 421
*Redistricting is partly responsible for population
drop compared to previous census.

5. CONTEXT
➤ The field work fits into the larger focus of focusing on the
“fringe” or peasants during the Cold War transitions.
➤ Specifically on how the the larger, modern French national
identity intersects with local regional identity through the
invented tradition of public schooling.
➤ The work was published in 1996, chronologically near Maryon
McDonald’s study on language education in Brittany (1989),
and Sanda Jo Spiegel’s study of an agricultural community in
Touraine (1978).
➤ Reed-Danahay does not focus on the linguistic aspects of
culture beyond mentioning the occasional usage of the regional
dialect to exclude teachers.

6. MAIN POINTS
➤ Public education is a successful
invented tradition that is capable
of existing inside rural
communities, but not without
friction between the culture
providing the tradition of
education and the culture
receiving it.
➤ The Auvergnant pride themselves
on adaptability and the ability to
“make out” or “win” in situations.
As a result, they force their
children to attend school, but
they also undermine the school
and teachers on topics outside the
scope of curriculum.

7. PROGRESSION TO ADULTHOOD
➤ The progression to adulthood in Lavialle is designed to instill
the social structure around the different levels of intimacy.
➤ Once children enter the educational system, they start
being taught the need to code switch in terms of language
and behavioral expectations.
➤ Children also learn the value of gossip as parents are often
more interested in non-educational developments than
what was learned at school.
➤ Given the small size of the community, children tend to
group based on age and have a limited number of play
interactions.

8. REBELLION
➤ Reed-Danahay’s descriptions do an excellent job of describing the
evolving nature of the rebellion against the school and the politics of
those involved with the school.
➤ The local Lavialle identity is partly defined by how it is not what is
being taught in the local school by French teachers.
➤ This results in dynamic and passive resistance to teachers and the
education system in order to undermine the National identity and
the symbolic, structural violence of the school system.
➤ Michelin, a tire manufacturer, had opened a factory in a larger, near
by city. While the factory did contribute the out-migration, Lavialle’s
focus on the traditional, agricultural identity has allowed to see a
slower out migration than some of the surrounding communes.

9. QUIZ

10. ➤ True or False: The French public education system was created after
World War II.
➤ True of False: The education system in Lavialle has successfully converted
peasants into Frenchmen.
➤ True or False: Language plays a larger role than tradition in defining an
identity.
➤ The Lavialle rebel against the teachers at the primary school because…
➤ A. They view the education provided to be a waste of time.
➤ B. The teachers, usually from other parts of France, are not considered
trustworthy
➤ C. Parents worry that the school is interring in their local traditions
➤ D. The local farms need the manual labor in order to be effective
Questions

11. ➤ False: The French public education system was created by the Ferry
laws in 1880 in an effort to define and codify what it means to be
French.
➤ False: While the education system in Lavialle has been successfully in
literacy, families attached to the school do not consider themselves
Frenchmen.
➤ False: The Auvergne farming traditions have had a larger impact on
the local identity than the regional dialect. The regional dialect is
rarely used outside of family settings.
➤ C. The parents are generally pro-education, especially with regard to
navigating the French identity, but they treat the school with a level
of skepticism around how teaching the French identity might
undermine their regional identity.
Answers