Chapter 8: A Traditional Frame for Global History: The Narrative of Modernity in French Secondary School

Whereas in France primary school history tended—and still tends today—to pass on a narrative of nation, the general history framework in secondary school is rather different, more versatile and more potent. Since the seventies, more than eight new history curricula have been implemented, mainly in secondary education (Garcia & Leduc, 2003). However, the school history aims are quite steady. History in secondary school is not nationalistic. It supports and is supported by values granted to be the ideal for humanity, particularly human rights, democracy, scientific and economical progress, equality, and openness to otherness. The institutional aims insist on the priority of these values over any national identity. The curricula are shaped through interpretations from a universalist perspective. The grand narrative shapes how politics, society and economy have developed from archaism and barbarism to modernity and political and social rights, even through acute crises. This provides an opportunity to teach both the history of France and that of Europe or the World, interpreted through the same values. Also it provides an opportunity to change the contents of the curricula, and thus to implement global perspectives, without changing the core structure of the narrative. Nevertheless the chosen topics, and the chronological context in which they are set, results in and from ethnocentrism. This might be problematic in a society more and more sensitive to ethnical diversity.