Conforming to Excel? Walking the Tightrope Between Individualization and Conformity in French Catholic Privileged Schools

• In Event: 40206 - Childhood at a Crossroads: The Battle Over Children’s Innocence and Agency

Abstract

This article examines the process of individualization among children in privileged French Catholic schools, focusing on how social environments shape children’s ability to become active agents in their lives. It explores how school socialization processes impact children from affluent families, particularly in a school system that combines two contradictory goals: personalizing student care while enforcing conformity.
The study is based on year-long ethnographic fieldwork at a prestigious primary Catholic school. The researcher visited the school weekly during the 2022–2023 academic year, spending over 500 hours observing first and fifth graders in various settings. Interviews with staff (n=6), parents (n=19), and first and fifth graders (n=22) were conducted, along with focus groups with fifth graders (n=6).
The article argues that discipline is particularly strong in privileged Catholic schools, where conformity is seen as crucial for social and elite integration. The educational project aims to balance personalized support with high expectations, ultimately reinforcing group norms. This result is surprising considering that studies on educational practices in middle and upper-class contexts have so far emphasized individualized practices and the use of gentle discipline.
Parents, while seeking a “tailor-made” education, have differing attitudes toward the framework imposed on their children. Parents from the old Catholic bourgeoisie are satisfied with the school’s structure, while those from cultural upper-class backgrounds, sharing expressive ideals, experience more tension.
Children adopt codes of behavior that align with an ideal student model, limiting individual expression. They see the enforcement of rules as a way to succeed in their education and as a form of distinction from public schools’ students. Their high level of docility sometimes accompanies a fear of speaking out or a form of discomfort, especially when their experience greatly differs between school and home. Nonetheless, docility doesn't imply total submission to the rules, nor does it prevent small acts of resistance.

Author

• Emilie Grisez, Sciences Po