Re-Examining the Domestic Convention in French Education.

Taking historical and current examples from French education, this paper aims to disclose the moral grammar related to the legitimisation of republicanism and its sense of justice between tradition and modernity. It analyses the relationship between domestic and civic conventions as it has been institutionalised through discourse, practices, and social relationships. It helps to understand the permanence of rules, hierarchy, and bureaucracy in a domesticity that also shapes public situations and maintains a patrimonial vision. The paper also shows the persistent use of honours, rituals, and the recognition of merits that qualify virtues, moral capacities, and tests among people. Beyond the current political controversy about secularism, the boundary between religion and the State is questioned by exploring the persistence of the “sacred,” “ranks,” and “fraternity” in social bonds and publicness that confirm the domestic convention.