An anthropology of education management

Overview & Synopsis

This chapter takes a close look at the curricula designers' conception activity. The author conducted a fieldwork allowing a precise sociological description of the management tools used to account value when engineering a new training. A description of expected sales revenues, investment as well as running costs and financial analysis sets a an economical perspective on value management. However, on field, this economical perspective is confronted to the values of the profession that are critical to understand the curriculum designers' activities. Teachers resist to being transformed into product managers. A discussion on this professionalization around new values leads to develop a direction of research towards a French model of education, where valuation helps to solve the paradox of meritocracy-this constituting an anthropological model of education management.