Mechanisms of Inequalities in School: Data from an Ethnographic Study in a French Middle School in a “Priority Zone”

In this article, I would like to sketch out the everyday life of a middle school in a priority education zone, seen through the lens of the little-known figure of the educational assistant, as well as some of the mechanisms of inequalities that it reveals. The paper draws on my ethnographic research (2014-2015) in such a school in Normandy, France. I pay special attention to the ‘inequality of treatment’ and its two main aspects: inequality of resources and inequality in relation to the ‘school climate’, and view the school environment as a place of confrontation and articulation of several professions, two of which are intimately linked (Perrenoud, 2010). I apply Perrenoud’s sociological theory of the ‘occupation pupil’, which is defined as mastering the ‘rules of the game’, as having the ability to fulfill the role of a pupil without disrupting the order or requiring special care (Sirota, 1993). This theoretical framework allows us to consider the differences between pupils primarily as unequal distances between their individual, family and social habits and the school requirements, norms and regulations in daily work. The ethnographic examples I present trace the subtle processes that transform a school not only into a space of production and reproduction of inequalities, but also into one of violence in the sense of Dubet (Dubet, 2002).