ACADEMIC WORK IN SECONDARY-SCHOOLS - FROM THE ESTABLISHMENTS DISCOURSE TO STUDENTS EXPERIENCE

How do today's high school students experience the academic work they are asked to do? In a survey conducted in two French secondary schools , the establishments and the students justify their viewpoints through a discourse about ''meritocratic justice'' and ''success through work ''. But the difficulty, given the lack of stable norms, of assessing t heir own work leads students to reintroduce the idea of ''an equal gra de for equal work''. This dominant idea brings along many misunderstan dings, since there is a contrast between the ''work discourse'' and th e results when grades are posted. Three reasons why this discourse car ries weight are examined. It has come along with the development of ma ss education and its principle of equality: work serves as a weapon fo r motivating students in a context where pedagogical norms are unsettl ed -given its malleability, the reference to work has many potential u ses. Secondly, since work is not defined with reference to flexible cr iteria, students resort to the criterion of quantity- even more so whe n they are having difficulty. Work becomes a way to ''save'' students from the offenses of the academic verdict. Thirdly, by combining the q uantity of work provided and the level of success, there are many poss ibilities for adjusting, positively or negatively, the notion of work.