Performance, accomplissement et participation : l’école captive de projets sans fin

Abstract

Taking “social structure” as our starting point, we see cultures as social constructs, progressively institutionalized and crystallized, in perpetual transformation. This understanding of cultures allows us to question what the introduction of a set of conventions – formalized in a concept about inclusive school (Vaud, Switzerland) – does in the cultures of teaching professions. This concept assumes the coexistence of distinct universes, through a lexical field combining performance, control, functioning versus participation, equality, self-fulfillment. The objectives are, in fact, to strengthen a culture of educability while providing “a structured and efficient response to all of the school’s needs.” This coexistence is reflected in the accounts of professional experiences shared during group analysis carried out during in-service training addressed to qualified teachers, to develop skills in line with the inclusive aims of school. It appears that the achievement of this aim is hampered by an absence/insufficiency of conventions and a coexistence of rival conventions, weighing on teachers’ well-being. On this basis, we identify professional tensions that can be described as “cultural” and articulated around five of the seven worlds modeled by Boltanski, Thévenot and Chiapello.