Agrégation Explained

In France, the (in French pronounced as /aɡʁeɡasjɔ̃/) is the most competitive and prestigious examination for civil service in the French public education system. Successful candidates become professeurs agrégés and are usually appointed as teachers in secondary schools or preparatory classes, or as lecturers in universities.

Context

Originating from the 18th century,[1] the is a highly prestigious and competitive examination.[2] [3] [4] [5] The level of selectivity varies between disciplines: every year, the French Ministry of National Education determines and publishes a list of annual quotas for each discipline.[6] There are about 300 to 400 positions open each year for mathematics, but usually fewer positions for humanities and social sciences (for example, 85 positions for philosophy were offered in 2024[7]) and perhaps only one seat in some rarely taught foreign languages such as Japanese.

The is typically open only to holders of a five-year university diploma (master's degree) or above. There is also an internal for professeurs certifiés.

Selection process

The examination requires usually more than a year of preparation. Students of the écoles normales supérieures as well as graduate students who have just completed their master's degree often dedicate an entire year of their curriculum to prepare this examination, enrolling into specific graduate programs. Candidates are called agrégatifs.

The competitive exam generally consists first of a written part (admissibility), then an oral part (admission).

The jury is composed of university professors.

Admissibility

The admissibility phase is composed of numerous writing tests, which consist of essays and analyses of documents. Each test takes up to 7 hours in duration, and the admissibility phase usually runs over an entire week.

Points obtained at each test are totaled, and candidates that meet the threshold set by the yearly quota are pronounced admissible by the jury. The writing part is when most candidates are eliminated.

Admission

The remaining candidates have to go through an oral part (admission), composed of different oral exams.[8] In front of the jury, candidates must demonstrate their ability to prepare and give lectures on any topic within the scope of the discipline.

These lectures provide the opportunity to verify that the candidates possess the appropriate speaking skills and master the main exercises and components of their discipline; for example, in the Agrégation of Classics (French, Greek, Latin), candidates have to translate and comment on classical texts and texts from French literature. These lessons extend well above the secondary education level; the candidate may have to present a lesson appropriate for the second, third, or even fourth years of specialized courses at the university level. One reason is that the agrégés should be able to teach in preparatory classes, very similar in nature to grammar schools, or in universities.

Points obtained at the admissibility and admission phases are ultimately totaled and used to rank candidates in accordance with the yearly quota: for instance, for a quota of 60 positions, the first 60 candidates will pass the exam and are pronounced admis by the jury.

The is therefore used as an unofficial national ranking system for students, giving a fair comparison between candidates of different universities. That is especially true in the humanities and social sciences, for which the is highly selective and supposedly demonstrates erudition of the candidate.

Professional outcomes

In France, professeurs agrégés are distinguished from professeurs certifiés, recruited through the CAPES, the other main competitive exam in the French education system. The agrégés receives a higher salary and are usually endorsed with a smaller teaching service. While agrégés are expected to teach in sixth-form colleges (lycées) and universities and the certifiés in secondary schools (collèges), there is a significant overlap.

In addition to the vast majority of agrégés teaching in sixth-form colleges and secondary schools, some agrégés teach in the preparatory classes for the grandes écoles, or at the university level, through a faculty position known as PRAG and focused on teaching, which does not require to undertake scientific research, as other university academics do. A few positions that include research activities, called agrégé préparateur, or AGPR, exist in the .

List of agrégations

Foreign languages
Humanities
Economics and Social Sciences

Although both Agrégations are labeled as Agrégation of economics, the Agrégation of economics and social sciences is more oriented towards political economy whereas the Agrégation of economics and management is more oriented towards business economics.

Physical and Natural Sciences
Technical and Vocational Education
Art
Physical Education

In higher education

In some disciplines of higher education such as law, legal history, political science, economics, management, there exists an for the professorship positions, called agrégation de l'enseignement supérieur. In this competitive exam, the candidate also has to give several lessons in front of a committee.[10] Usually there are three lessons, spread over several months, except in economics, where there are only two lessons. The first and the last lessons have to be prepared alone, during eight hours, in a library of basic titles selected by the committee. For the remaining lesson, when it exists, the candidate has a full 24 hours to prepare for the examination, and may use several libraries as well as a team of "helpers" (usually doctoral candidates or fellow candidates, but never full professors).

Some anticonformist sociologists like Pierre Bourdieu have argued that this exam measures a candidate's social connections as much their ability to present a lesson, especially considering the composition of the examining committee.

Some well-known agrégés

In popular culture

In the movie L'Étudiante, a dramatic scene features Sophie Marceau undertaking the oral exam for the agrégation of Classic Literature.

In the TV show The Bureau, Paul Lefebvre, one of the aliases of French spy Guillaume Debailly, played by Mathieu Kassovitz, holds the agrégation of Modern Literature.

Further reading

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Schrift . Alan D. . 2008 . The effects of the agrégation de philosophie on twentieth-century French philosophy . 2024-01-07 . philpapers.org . en.
  2. News: 2014-11-06 . L’agrégation, miroir de l’école française . 2024-01-07 . Le Monde.fr . fr.
  3. News: Willsher . Kim . 2007-08-08 . Anglophones 'need not apply' . 2024-01-07 . The Guardian . en-GB . 0261-3077.
  4. Bourdieu . Pierre . Saint Martin . Monique de . 1987 . Agrégation et ségrégation . Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales . 69 . 1 . 2–50 . 10.3406/arss.1987.2380.
  5. Beattie . Nicholas . 1994 . Review of Histoire de l'Agrégation: Contribution à l'histoire de la Culture Scolaire . British Journal of Educational Studies . 42 . 2 . 196–198 . 10.2307/3122340 . 0007-1005.
  6. Web site: Les postes et contrats offerts aux concours de l'agrégation de la session 2024 devenirenseignant.gouv.fr . 2024-01-07 . www.devenirenseignant.gouv.fr . fr.
  7. Web site: Les postes et contrats offerts aux concours de l'agrégation de la session 2024 devenirenseignant.gouv.fr . 2024-01-07 . www.devenirenseignant.gouv.fr . fr.
  8. Mouly . C. . Atias . C. . 1993 . Faculty Recruitment in France . The American Journal of Comparative Law . 41 . 3 . 401 . 10.2307/840656 . 0002-919X.
  9. Web site: Page of the ministry of education on the creation of the Agrégation in computer science . Devenir enseignant . 22 November 2022.
  10. http://cache.media.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/file/Personnels_enseignants_chercheurs/94/1/ARRETE_DU_13_FEVRIER_86_VERSION_CONSOLIDEE_2012_321941.pdf Official text organizing the French "agrégation de l'enseignement supérieur"
  11. Book: A Sociological Approach to Poetry Translation: Modern European Poet-Translators. Routledge Advances in Translation and Interpreting Studies. Jacob S. D. Blakesley. Routledge. 2018. 9780429869853.

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