Interdisciplinary Research Laboratory in Didactics, Education, and Training

Education, Politics, Society

This research area examines and explores education from the perspective of the individual’s uniqueness as well as its various dimensions (political, historical, psychological, social, economic, etc.) during a period of ecological and political transition that is steering our contemporary societies toward innovative, inclusive, adaptive, and participatory models. More broadly, the cultural and societal implications arising from these educational questions are at the heart of this research area. These reflective and critical studies, conducted within the framework of the complexity paradigm, focus on the relationships between educational goals and the goals of societal transformation.

The unique nature of this research project is structured around four main areas:

The first concerns, on the one hand, the subject as a whole—including its cognitive, affective, ethical, aesthetic, digital, and social dimensions—and, on the other hand, the educational dimension associated with it, from both cultural and intercultural as well as social perspectives, with a view to fostering its empowerment in times of transition.

The second explores the interface between formal education (the school system) and non-formal education (museums, cultural institutions, and organizations). The aim is specifically to clarify this interface and then to develop methods for identifying, examining, and evaluating the skills that are common to both worlds as well as those specific to each.

The third aims to make the contributions of educational research on the objectives and challenges of public policies at various spatial and temporal scales accessible and understandable, examining the relationship between the global and the local in terms of their mutual tensions, as well as the historical and geographical contexts associated with these policies, in order to foster a better understanding of institutional educational systems.

The fourth aims to redefine, within these contexts and from a critical perspective, research that examines the tensions surrounding, in particular, issues related to the fight against inequality, processes of inclusion, and projects of emancipation.

Key questions

The Construction of the Social and Societal Subject

  • “Education in …,” “other forms of education,” and disciplines (both school-based and academic) as tools for the empowerment of the individual.
  • Values as a cornerstone of personal development and the formation of social identity.
  • Perceptions, attitudes, relationships with the world, and societal issues.
  • Sensitive, critical, and reflective approaches.

The relationship between formal and non-formal education

  • Cultures and Interculturality: Specific Features of Mediation and Training, Tensions Between Meaning and Explanation of Content.
  • Curriculum-based approaches and frameworks aimed at transformation.
  • Contemporary methods of producing and disseminating knowledge, including digital knowledge, within collective culture.
  • Soft skills: Which skills for which challenges? Which assessments for which forms of recognition?

Objectives, Challenges, and Public Policy

  • The challenges—but what public policies? What are the limits?
  • Processes ofdemocratization versusmassification,cultural versuseconomic, etc.
  • Historical and geographical perspectives and networking for alternative proposals.
  • New venues and modes of knowledge dissemination.

The standard, processes of inclusion and empowerment

  • The subversion of the norm as a foundation for critical thinking: the issues of disability, gender, etc.
  • Educational approaches, particularly alternative ones, as a redefinition of the subject of education.
  • The Discourse of Knowledge: Between Power and Counter-Power.

Summary prepared by Muriel Guedj and Jean-Marc Lange.

A few collaborative projects

in progress

This item is currently being updated.

Past Projects

  • Supporting Home Health Care in the Regions of Occitanie Through Training Programs (ACSADOM, Philippe Gabriel, and Elodie Roebroeck, 2022–2024).
  • Educational Guidance for Young Migrants (OJEMIGR, INSHEA/GRHAPES, 2019–2023).
  • Identity and Cultural Ties to a Region as a Foundation for Engagement (EIEDD, 2017–2020).
  • Environmental Awareness Through Connecting with Nature in Schools (SIRENE, 2018–2021).
  • Building eco-citizenship skills through education for sustainable development via a Lebanese rock collection (PHC CEDRE, 2018–2019).
  • Ownership and the Commons in the Energy Transition through Participatory Action Research (ACTE-Cit’In, GIS Democracy and Participation, 2018–2019).
  • Motivation – Cooperation – Learning (MOCA, 2018–2021).
  • Language and Literacy in REP+ (2017–2020)
  • Collaborative Research and Activism in Education (RCME, 2019–2020).
  • From Text to Classroom (TALC, Bénédicte Louichon, 2017–2020).
  • Research program on the adoption of digital technology in higher education in Latvia and France: from intentions to practice (PHC OSMOSE, Philippe Gabriel, 2018–2019).
  • Emotional Capital, Academic Success, Health, and Well-being AmongFirst-YearUniversity Students (ANR/IDEFI-UM3D-15 b, Bénédicte Gendron, 2012–2019).
  • Professional Identity and Attitudes Toward the Profession Among Judo Teachers in France (IPRADEJU, Thérèse Perez-Roux, 2015–2019).

Conferences with presentations

Contributory seminars

  • Formal education, non-formal education, education in
  • Tools, Actors, Networks, Knowledge.
  • Teaching theater and poetry today.
  • Multilingualism, standards, and language socialization.