L’école maternelle par les directrices et les maître-sse-s

L’enfant avant les injonctions officielles ? (Paris, années 1950-1990)

Abstract

This article analyses archives provided by public kindergartens of Paris between 1945 and the 1990s. In this contribution, the aim is to highlight the role of translator played by teachers who adapt official standards according to their repre- sentations of the school public and the conditions of practice of their profession. They also negotiate with interlocutors who are parents and representatives of the “Mairie de Paris” and the Inspection. They represent a central category in the production of local educational policies: they translate the demands of the ministry (programs, circulars) taking account the constraints of their implementation and their professional identity as well as their representation of pupils. Depending on the role they devised, teachers favor a representation of the kindergarten child as a very young child with specific needs, a happy child at school or a social student to go to school. However, this freedom is gradually reduced from the 1980s.