Reprendre la main. Les PIAL, une tentative pour maîtriser la réussite de l’école inclusive

Abstract

In the field of “French-style” school inclusion for pupils with disabilities, the recent innovation of the Pôles inclusifs d’accompagnement localisés (PIALs) involves structuring support for these pupils on a territory-wide basis. Based on a qualitative survey, this contribution aims to analyze the ways in which these PIALs have been implemented in the Lyon education district. On the basis of a documentary analysis, observation of a series of launch meetings and around fifteen interviews, it shows that the PIALs have initially resulted in a focus on rationalizing the working hours of the Accompagnantes des élèves en situation de handicap (AESH), a non-teaching staff with insecure status, whose recruitment is beyond the control of the Éducation Nationale. The variable geometry of the system allows for a wide range of management methods for these staff, resulting in PIALs operating in very different ways from one school district to another. Beyond this “managerial reduction“ (Laforgue, 2005), the study shows that the PIAL is indicative of a policy through organization (Knoepfel, et al., 2015) that restores to the education state some of its capacities weakened by the departmentalization of public action on disability.