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This article responds to the paper "Multicultural Citizenship Within Multination States," by Will Kymlicka. It recognizes the paper for offering a convincing normative position on citizenship education. It assesses the proposed inclusion of citizenship in the curricula of England and France. The securitization of immigration is also discussed.

Curriculum placement is the keystone of educational stratification in France. Curricular boundaries are firmer than in the United States. and previous research has shown the effect of curriculum placement on subsequent educational attainment to be stronger in France. In this paper we report findings of strong effects of father's occupation, academic performance. parents expectations. and teachers' expectations on curriculum placement upon: the completion of primary school. Furthermore, we report significantly stronger effects for the socializing influences of parents' and teachers' expectations among the young women in our sample. We conclude that curriculum tracking in France (1) increases the variance of educational outcomes, (2) assists in the transmission of socioeconomic advantage from one generation to the next. and (3) is only tangentially involved in sexual stratification in France despite sexual segregation in the schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One might expect governments to react to deepening European integration since the mid-1980s by updating national school curricula in social science subjects such as history and geography so as to reflect the new realities. France has done so, whereas England has not. This study asks how one explains this variation in outcome. Established explanations for why Britain has been a more reluctant European than France on other issues provide a useful starting point. However, a more thorough explanation for the outcome on this issue is gained by instead looking at the role of historical legacies in education ("laissez-faire" and decentralization in England and "faire" and centralization in France) that date back to the beginnings of the spread of mass education in the 19th century. These unique national legacies served as a prism through which Europeanization was filtered, and this contributes to an understanding for the variation in contemporary curricula content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article recounts the course of sociology as a teaching subject at the French military academy from the personal perspective of one of its local protagonists. Having placed its introduction in context, it points up the motives behind a reform of studies (1982) which gave academic education greater scope and in which sociology played a central part. It goes through the various stages in the institution-building process that led from initially mixed reception to full internal acceptance as part of a common core of subjects. It analyzes the reasons for another major reconsideration, in 2000, of curricula and avenues of access, which endorsed and radicalized the previous reform's philosophy and turned sociology into a truly pivotal discipline-one that allows better integration of the academic and military sides of officer education. It assesses, in conclusion, the factors behind such a (fragile) success story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Linear Structural Relations analysis (LISREL) was used to examine the adequacy of a causal model of second language acquisition. A total of 18 variables were investigated using 140 students enrolled in one of two first year university French courses in a unilingual anglophone city. The model under investigation linked cultural beliefs, attitudes, motivation, situational anxiety, and prior achievement to proficiency in a second language. The results supported a socio-educational model of second language acquisition where proficiency in a second language was seen to be caused directly by prior achievement and motivation. Motivation was found to be caused by attitudinal variables which, in turn, were influenced by cultural beliefs. Individual differences in situational anxiety were determined by both prior achievement and motivation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]