For things to remain the same, everything must change? Studying National front’s and National rally’s platforms on education

Abstract

ABSTRACT The Rassemblement national, or National Rally (previously known as Front national, or National Front, until 2018) has been the only European far-right party that has constantly been among the major political organizations of its country since the 1980s. However, its agendas, ideas and proposals on education are relatively unknown and have barely been studied. Its manifestos, from its rise in the 1980s to the mid-2000s, showed a mix of a conservative perception of school curricula, an intense hostility towards teachers and a market-oriented approach of education (including school vouchers). Since the party has been led by Marine le Pen in 2011, the National Front/National Rally’s agenda seems to have substantially changed, and now promotes state schools and professionals working in them, while opposing any cuts in educational spending. The idea this research wants to investigate is that such a shift is actually limited, as it does not change what could be theorized as a ‘pedagogical core’ of the French far-right, defined here as a stable corpus of proposals and beliefs towards education. This core has remained remarkably stable since the first platform of the party released in 1973: selective, pessimistic about the outcomes and effects of mass schooling, nationalistic.