The five books we present here are at the heart of thinking about education. If you need to work on this question for a competition or for your studies, then these readings will be very useful.
3 Essential Books on School and Education
If you had to read only 3 books during the summer, or to prepare for a competition, choose these three books!
- Traité de pédagogie — Immanuel Kant: this treatise has the advantage of being a quick read, which is not always obvious when it comes to Immanuel Kant. It is a very good angle to consider the school, because this treatise confers to the pragmatism indissociable from education and pedagogy a more abstract, ethical and philosophical dimension ().
- L’Inégalité des chances — Raymond Boudon: Boudon takes the opposite view of Bourdieu’s theses on school. It is necessary to read him to understand this essential and very modern opposition, which remains the key element of the debates on school. (purchase paper version)
- Education and Sociology – Emile Durkheim: an analysis of education and school in all its dimensions and through the prism of sociology, an excellent introduction to the question of schooling, the role of the state in education, and related issues.
→ 5 books on democracy (bibliography)
Other books on School and Education
- Émile ou de l’éducation — Jean-Jacques Rousseau: a reflection more on education, on human learning, rather than on school. This book provides an unlimited number of examples and hooks, each more relevant than the last, to exploit in an assignment.
- Les politiques d’éducation — Agnès Van Zanten: a recent work, focused on politics, therefore ideal, but served by a style difficult to access contrary to what one can expect from a Que sais-je? (buy a paper version)
→ Bibliography History recommended by Sciences Po for the Concours common
→ General Knowledge: school and education
Thank you for allowing me to take a look at a set of works that you have put on the net. I would have liked you to help me find some books on the role of the state vis-à-vis disadvantaged children. Thank you in advance for your generosity.