Abstract
This article analyses the first two decades of existence of the subject Economic and Social Sciences (SES) in French secondary education (1965-1985). Based on an analysis of the archives of the French Ministry of National Education, complemented by interviews with social agents who played a notable role during this period, the aim is to highlight the formation of a “social field”, whose participants were involved in a “conflictual process” of defining the legitimacy of the teaching of Economic and Social Sciences. Three phases are highlighted during the period studied: the first consisted of getting neighbouring disciplines to accept the existence of this new teaching, the second involved the homogenisation of a teaching staff in a context of a shortage of specialists in the area and the third saw the autonomy of the initial project questioned by those in favour of standardising this teaching.
Keywords:
secondary education; France; social sciences; conflicts; social field