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Research Group: Educational Policies

Section #presentation

Presentation of the Educational Policies Research Group

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The research group is interested in how inequalities are formed and reproduced within school systems, and the effectiveness of public policies designed to counteract such inequalities. Our research takes an interdisciplinary approach (sociology, economics, psychology, etc.), combining quantitative and qualitative methods as well as experimental research designs.   

For the 2025-2030 period, the group wishes to support research on three themes:

Inclusive education

The promotion of “inclusive schools” has been a core evolution in the French education system since the 2005 law on equal rights and opportunities, participation and citizenship for people with disabilities, and reaffirmed in the 2019 law on the “school of trust”. The recognition of special needs in the broadest sense (disability, immigration, learning difficulties) and schools’ ability to adapt to them are regularly the subject of public debate, but lack comprehensive, interdisciplinary evidence to inform them. 

Curriculum reforms

A number of recent reforms to the secondary education cycle, such as ability groups (“groupes de niveaux”), have generated controversies regarding their applicability. Much of the international literature suggests that these policies do not improve overall academic results or reduce inequalities, but we lack evidence for the French context. Older reforms, particularly in primary school, aimed at reducing inequalities, such as reducing class sizes in CP (first grade), are also ripe for evaluation. 

Encouraging a diversity of methods and data

While maintaining support for previously developed methods, such as experimental designs, the group proposes to further develop qualitative approaches and the use of administrative data. Our group will encourage projects using administrative data, evaluate the support required by these projects, and promote sharing of information and tools to handle these data among group members. 

Section #seminars

Seminars of the research group

The Educational Policies research group organizes seminars open to all, presenting research work on various topics related to its research themes.

Find out more about the Educational Policies Seminars.

Section #projects

Associated Research Projects

Ongoing projects

Section #publications

Publications of the Research group

With the support of

IDEX - Université Paris Cité - France 2030
Find out more about the IDEX Université Paris Cité

Research Group Poster

Download the poster of the Educational Policies Research Group
Download the poster of the Educational Policies Research Group