Teachers' educational strategies as parents, and school career of teachers' children

Research team : 

Agnès van Zanten (OSC-LIEPP)

Carole Daverne-Bailly (Université de Rouen)

Géraldine Farges (Université de Bourgogne)

Séverine Kakpo (Université Paris 8) 

Presentation : 

Teachers’ children are better at school. They also reach better social positions than other middle class children (Sophie Devineau and Alain Léger, 2002). Because of the familiarity teachers have with school as an institution and a cultural framework, we may think they have specific educational practices with their children and make different choices regarding their schooling. This could explain the school career of their children.

This research project questions three dimensions of this issue:

• It seeks to evaluate the “teacher effect” on their childrens’ academic career after high school and on their chance to reach a stable professional position, in comparison with children from privileged social background.
• It then aims at understanding the “teacher effect” by studying educational practices with both quantitative and ethnographical comparative methods.
• It finally studies school choices in order to answer two questions: does teachers have specific resources as parents regarding where and what to study for their children? And if it is the case, do these resources increase more or in the same extent the chances for their children to have a long, linear and effective school career, in comparison with other upper middle class families?

Publications : 

Agnès van ZANTEN, Les pratiques éducatives familiales des enseignants : des parents comme les autres ?, Revue française de pédagogie, n°203, 2018, p.5-14.  

To learn more, click on the picture below (pdf in French):  "Stratégies éducatives parentales des enseignants", June 2014