Teachers faced with school achievement in priority education areas ; Les enseignants face à la réussite scolaire des élèves de ZEP
The French government designated schools in deprived areas as « Educational Priority Areas » (EPAs). Primary school teachers working in EPA have to deal with a high heterogeneity in children's levels. Moreover, violent behaviours and discipline maintenance are massive issues that are more frequent than in other areas in France. However, some children are high-performing pupils (HPPs) in EPAs as well.This work aims to investigate the perspective of primary school teachers facing high performance at school in EPA.We conducted a national survey of primary school teachers in EPAs, by a questionnaire online, and then performed led-interviews of teachers working in an EPA in Marseille. We focused the analysis of these declarative data in order to determine (1) the definition of a HPP, (2) the devices set up for HPPs, and (3) the impact of HPPs on the class.2490 teachers responded to the national survey and ten personal interviews were performed. Most of the respondants agreed that HPPs are wise, listening and they participate. Although standards of evaluation are supplied by the institution (departmental or national evaluations), only 9% of respondant declared to use them as first criterion to estimate the success of their pupils and 49% prefered to refer to their own evaluation. Thus, the definition of HPPs is mostly based on teacher-related criteria than institution. Interestingly, the personnal characteristics of the professional influences their HPP's definition as well as their education practices, which highlight an important teacher effect toward HPPs. Finally, teachers considered HPPs as educational auxiliaries, having a key role during shared actions. Our research hightlight the teachers dilemna between the instrumentalization of HPPs for the benefit of the pupils in difficulty, which in a way is penalizing their own acquisition of knowledges, and their will to keep high-standard teaching objectives for the HPPs in their class. ; Les professeurs des écoles, enseignant dans les milieux défavorisés, doivent ...