“We’re a teacher, not a soldier!” : Agnès Perrin-Doucey, director of the Faculty of Education of Montpellier which is celebrating its tenth anniversary

Agnès Perrin-Doucey, first woman elected to the position of director of the Faculty of Education, “a certain satisfaction!”. FREE MIDI – GIACOMO ITALIANO

Elected for five years at the end of 2021 at the head of the Faculty of Education of Montpellier, which will celebrate its ten years of existence this Monday, May 27, Agnès Perrin-Doucey looks back on her creation, and gives her feeling about the reforms to come.

Montpellier no longer has an IUFM since 2013 but a Faculty of Education where you were elected for 5 years. A unique example in France where INSPE (National Higher Institute of Teaching and Education) were created. What is its particularity ?

I was elected in January 2022, following a consensus between the majority of staff and students. I was therefore recruited at the end of the IUFM in 2013 where I was an assistant. The IUFM is then a component of the University of Montpellier 2. The merger with the UM3 (Faculty of Letters) is under discussion but this does not come to fruition, the’ IUFM was unable to transform into ESPE (Higher School of Teaching and Education), subsequently renamed INSPE, as everywhere else in France. The situation was special, the "faculty" was created temporarily by the will of Philippe Augé, president of the University of Montpellier, and has continued given the somewhat tense local political context. In 2021, the ministry recognized our original operation with our own training offer and authorized it by decree.

What was the issue?

Philippe Augé specified the importance of having teachings that would be maintained throughout our territory: Perpignan, Mende, Carcassonne, Nîmes and Montpellier. Elsewhere, small sites have disappeared, which was not our case. At the time, the IUFM was at the forefront of research, with the integrated laboratory, LIRDEF, a research team in didactics, education and training under the supervision of the UM and Paul Valéry Montpellier 3 which brings together 90% of the teacher-researchers in our faculty.

What are the differences for a student?

The mission of INSPE is to train teachers by developing MEEF, first, second degree and continuing education masters degrees. Point. We have also been able to develop our own training courses, including a "multidisciplinarity license in teaching, teaching and education" which is very far ahead of the government's proposals. We invented it. Students who enter L1 to be a school teacher who change their mind can reorient themselves here. We have created avenues for diversification. And a master’s degree in education and training with three different courses. This license and master's degree do not exist in INSPE.

3 100 places have not been filled in 2023. Do the recruitment figures worry you ?

Things aren't getting better. In Créteil for example, for 1000 positions, there are only 700 eligible and among them not all will have the level after the oral tests. We will cover 60% of positions maximum.

Where does this disenchantment come from? And why does he persist ?

For salary and transfer questions. For a school teacher, going to Bédarieux is the end of the world. With the weighting system, the winners are mistreated because they find themselves in the most difficult sectors, even if public policies try to correct this. There is also a form of mistreatment in moving from one reform to another, each based on the results of PISA-type studies where we drop ’ quot;the fault” on the teachers ! And then we are in a more individualistic society, and it is a human profession. Relations are also more complicated with families. We are all responsible.

And more and more frequent resignations.

There is wear and tear linked to public policies, we feel discredited. The attacks by Dominique Bernard and Samuel Paty raise questions. We are teachers, not soldiers. There is no longer any educational consensus in families. You have to reread Jules Ferry's letter! The teacher no longer addresses children who are no longer educated in the same way. Today, the inclusive school depends a lot on the good will of teachers, with little training, it’s a breeze. Teachers are burning out. The high school reform is proof of this.

Precisely, what is this new reform which places the recruitment competition at the end of the 3rd year of the license from the 2025 session? What does this change??

Everything! From 2013 to 2021 the competitions were placed in Master 1. The students prepared for the competition from the outset. And in M2, they were trainee civil servants or had to retake it if they had failed. Then, Macron and Blanquer decided to place the competition at the end of M2, i.e. at bac +5. Macron chose last April to move the competition back to L3 (bac +3), at the start of the 2025 school year. We have to modify everything for this start of the school year, but we have no information other than that given by Le Monde on April 5, where Macron spoke. We have what we need for this, but we don't know anything about the dates and conditions.

Are all these reforms leading to disaffection with the profession??

It creates a lot of uncertainty, it’s vague. The idea of ​​putting the competition in L3 is very good, but there needs to be a minimum of dialogue. All this casts even more opprobrium on teaching careers, when the objective is to recruit!

"It’was better before, in the days of normal school!". What do you think??

Teaching professions are less attractive to young people. There is an idealization, a national romance around what the "normal schools" were. These were schools with a very “normative” transmission. Their objectives were to draw elites from the population. Today, equality is the priority. And that’s happy. The level of society has risen. We still believe that the normal school solved all social problems, this is false. It’s a political subject, the school is always recovered with the game of reforms, it’s catastrophic.

Emmanuel Macron speaks of a "normal school of the 21st  century". Really?

It’is an element of language which plays on this idealization of normal schools… Universities would open preparation licenses for school teaching, directly accessible after the baccalaureate, with French, maths, geography, history. We also want to eliminate the MEEF, the master's degree in teaching, education and training which prepares for school teacher recruitment competitions (CRPE) to train as in the normal schools of the past, that is to say civil servants-trainees. Here too, we know nothing.

In master's studies, students would receive remuneration of 1 400 euros net then 1 800 euros net.

It's good, but it will close the door to non-winners of the competition.

What do you think of the Teacher Pact which pays for missions based on volunteering ?

Earning more means working more. They are held responsible for absenteeism. Taking over the work of absent colleagues is complicated. Blanquer was the minister who imposed his technicalist vision of teaching, very linked to neuroscience. The labeling of textbooks is an example, we take away educational freedom from teachers, and therefore this pleasure of teaching which comes through creativity, how we get students to learn! See the understanding in the eyes of your students, hear yourself say "it’s already finished mistress !" It&rsquo ;is not scolding students or correcting copies.

What message would you send to the Ministry?

I would say, "look at the experiments that work like we do". The countries that succeed are those that do a lot of research, a teacher is an intellectual who knows how to analyze situations. The L3 competition why not ? It will validate a general level. After five years, you need companionship, the job is learned over the long term. My first lessons were not top level. As apprentices have a tutor! Didactic training!

What is your engine?

My driving force is creativity. I had the chance to teach literature. Each book is unique, each course is unique. Since the start of Emmanuel Macron's five-year term, we have been on very normative positions of the school.

And you are the first woman to hold such a position ?

I'm rather at the end of my career, but being the only woman crowns a special career. I am a product of the social elevator, even if it is more on the miller scale, I was first a teacher, then an associate professor, trainer, teacher-researcher. It is the dynamics of the Faculty of Education that motivated my application: working in the university project, in a component with values, respect for public service. And then yes, being the first woman is a reason for satisfaction!

The faculty is celebrating its 10th anniversary, let's return to this model from which we seem to draw inspiration!

This is an original model modeled on major international universities. We are heirs of the IUFM and the normal schools! We recognize our students when they sit for the exam board. I don't really like "models" but we are an interesting example to analyze.

The express bio of Agnès Perrin-Doucey

Agnès Perrin-Doucey succeeds in 2022 à Jean-Paul Udave. First woman è occupied this position since the creation of the IUFM then of the Faculty; With a background in education, she began her career as a teacher in 1986. In 1992 she passed the CAPES in Modern Letters, then in 1998 the aggregation in Modern Letters. In 1999, she was recruited to the IUFM of Grenoble then of Créteil. In 2012, she defended a thesis on the Construction of a Social Identity. reader at CP. She participated in the actively à the creation of two diplomas the Faculty d’&Education : the multidisciplinarity degree and professions in teaching, education and training and the master's degree in Didactics of the Humanities (DIDHUM) for which she is responsible.

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