In Cahors, how Inspé prepares future teachers to address secularism in the classroom

At the National Higher Institute of Teaching and Education of Cahors (Inspé), on Monday October 16, teachers and students respected the minute of silence in tribute to Dominique Bernard, the professor murdered in Arras. But here, after the tragedy, another question arises: how to teach secularism at school? Inspé teachers do not have a miracle recipe. “There is no little red notebook with an answer on page 375,” smiles Dominique Moisy, sports teacher and head of Inspé on the Cahors campus. So, the 100 students, 50 in master 1 and 50 in master 2, are invited to “think” about this “hot potato”.

“We must first reset the notion of secularism, know what we are talking about,” explains Ghislaine Marty-Masson, project manager who says she is particularly “touched” by the assassination of Dominique Bernard, a French teacher, like her. . “They may find themselves facing opposing students, who refuse to read texts, systematically supported by parents,” notes the manager. How to approach secularism with CP students? Should they play police with the students who laugh during the minute of silence?

Adapt to the environment

Students want answers. “They are at a training stage of bac+5 level, therefore engineer level. They are able to push their thinking. There is no real answer, we help them find axes”, continues Dominique Moisy. But above all, the three teachers advise their students to adapt to the environment. “We must take into account the context which is not just that of the classroom. Teaching secularism in a small rural village and in a Toulouse district is not the same thing,” he says. It must be said that at Inspé, the students are particularly pampered. “It’s a special cocoon,” recognizes Ghislaine Marty-Masson, in the conviviality room with its roof terrace and its view of the green Mont Saint-Cyr.

The building is new and modern, the head chef in the canteen knows everyone’s preferences and first names, the teachers lend the keys to the work rooms to students when they are too cold in the library. We are far, far from the large establishments in the Parisian suburbs. “Here, we are not anonymous and we play this card of proximity,” slips the project manager. It is perhaps for all these reasons that future teachers often ask to be posted to the Lot.