“Can We Talk About ‘School Dominance’ and Consider That Too Much Schooling Harms Education?”
With:
- François Dubet, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Bordeaux
- Marie Duru-Bellat, Sociologist, Emeritus Professor at Sciences Po Paris, Researcher at CRIS and IREDU
In this episode, we ask whether schooling takes up too much space in our lives and in shaping our children’s futures.
This question is central to the book L’emprise scolaire, recently published by Presses de Sciences Po. Its authors, sociologists Marie Duru-Bellat and François Dubet, join us as guests. The term “emprise” (domination or grip) is striking—it suggests an influence we cannot escape. This “empire of schooling” seems to shape our worldview: what knowledge matters, how we relate to our children, what constitutes success, intelligence, or even happiness, as we ideally strive for personal fulfillment in school.
But how did we, as a society, come to be so unanimously convinced of schooling’s central role while simultaneously lamenting the state of education?
Listen to the podcast:
https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/etre-et-savoir/donnons-trop-d-importance-a-la-scolarite-5258334