This theoretical and methodological text defines the concept of “traces” within the framework of historical and cultural activity theory. This definition is based on six key questions concerning the nature, purpose, function, creator, construction method and recipient of activity traces. From the dual epistemic and transformative perspective of this theory, the uses of activity traces are addressed in light of the theoretical and methodological foundations of the Change Laboratory (LC), an intervention methodology that supports participants in their efforts to transform the system of activity within which they operate. The text will present the two structuring principles of LCs: the deployment of collective transformative agency through double stimulation, and the ascent from the abstract to the concrete. Finally, the text will draw on an LC carried out with the management committee of a teacher training institute in France to illustrate the use of activity traces from transformative and epistemic perspectives.
This article explores the role of traces in the professional development of novice teachers through two modalities of video-based confrontation: self-confrontation and collective confrontation. While prior research often treats classroom video as a static record of past events, we approach traces—videographic, mnemonic, and discursive—as dynamic resources that circulate among participants and are continually re-signified in context. Findings show that in self-confrontation, the interplay between video and discourse allows teachers to revisit their experience through mnemonic traces, leading them to articulate the operative compromises that structure their professional activity. In collective confrontation, the combination of discursive and mnemonic traces fosters the construction of shared memory, mutual legitimation, and the emergence of alternative courses of action perceived as viable. Taken together, these results suggest that traces operate as transactional objects endowed with a threefold temporality (past, present, future). They function simultaneously as mirror, lever, and horizon, expanding teachers’ professional agency and opening new possibilities for action.
From a pragmatic perspective, the subject’s semiotic activity is only accessible through their observable actions. The study of human activities can therefore only take place a posteriori, in mediation spaces where the traces left by activity become objects of inquiry. In this process, the trace moves from the status of imprint of semiosis – understood as a dynamic process of meaning-making associating the sign, its object, and its interpretant – to that of sign to be reinterpreted by the teacher-researcher according to their own context of appropriation. Acknowledging the verbocentrism that characterizes Western culture and its limits in rendering experience, activity analysis can be enriched by semiotic resources other than verbal language to explore the multimodality of relations between situated meaning-making and its restitution. Building on the prominence of the visual in human communication and its indexical power, this contribution examines traces co-constructed by visual and verbal semiotic modalities in the context of training future generalist teachers. Multimodal analysis sheds light on the choices made by learner-subjects, highlighting the effects of meaning produced by the dynamic articulation of the two modalities. Taking into account the diachronic dimension of production by the subject and interpretation by the teacher-researcher turns the trace of learning activity into a semiotic resource for developing reflective awareness and, consequently, the reflexivity of future teachers, thanks to its potential for (re)signifying experience.
Drawing on a comparative qualitative study conducted with secondary school teachers in Montreal (Quebec) and Zurich (Switzerland), this article examines reported practices aimed at making student assessment more equitable. Data analysis identifies five types of assessment adjustments common to both contexts: pedagogical differentiation, diversification of assessment modalities, flexibility and the provision of second chances for students, collective and collaborative assessment, and transparency and communication in the assessment process. These adjustments reflect a contextualized conception of equity grounded in professional judgment and in the recognition of diverse learning situations, within contrasting institutional frameworks. The study shows that, despite differing conceptions of educational justice and differentiated systemic constraints, teachers develop convergent adjustments to respond to institutional requirements and students’ needs. By mobilizing the theoretical framework of assessment adjustments, this article provides deeper insight into how teachers negotiate tensions between standardization and equity, while highlighting the central role of professional judgment as a lever for educational justice, without allowing direct inferences about actual classroom practices or generalization beyond the studied contexts.
Many studies report on the difficulties, trials and concerns that novice teachers have to overcome or go beyond when they enter the profession. The fact remains, however, that most of these beginners persevere and express, if not a balance, a relative satisfaction with teaching. At a time when the profession in France is becoming decreasingly attractive, what are the characteristics of these new teachers? Somewhere between vocation and disenchantment, what drives them, what encourages them to resist, to persist, to persevere despite everything? Based on a questionnaire survey (N=497), these were interviewed about their relationship with the profession, their motivation to become a teacher, the difficult times they had encountered when starting out, and the moments of success they had experienced in the exercise of their profession. Analysis of the open-ended questions relating to these key moments, in which the student generally plays a predominant role, insights into the perseverance they demonstrate.
Although the notion of the “trace” has been central to epistemological reflection in history since the beginning of its disciplinarization, it has only recently entered the lexicon of the educational sciences). In the field of activity analysis, it is a given that is increasingly being called into question: what is a trace? Who produces it? What is its function in research approaches? The ambivalence of the notion in the field of activity analysis likely also stems from the fact that the trace faces a dual fate, the threads of which are hard to untangle within research approaches themselves: as an operator of knowing and an operator of regulating action, learning, or the development of new capacities to think/act/feel. From this perspective, activity analysis serves as an analytical tool for this distinctive feature of the humanities and social sciences: their intimate relationship with action and its genesis. The question of the trace—its production and analysis—thus renews a number of methodological, theoretical, and epistemological questions that lie at the heart of the humanities and social sciences. An ambitious program that can be discerned between the lines of this editorial, whose more modest aim is to offer some keys to interpreting the six contributions gathered in this issue. Each of these highlights the meaning the concept takes on within its own theoretical perspective and its function as an operator of knowledge and/or reflection. By situating the use of the concept within concrete research and/or training approaches, each contribution proposes an analytical approach to a perceptible materiality produced by or drawn from an activity, in order to partially, provisionally, and modestly reconstruct a piece of the puzzle of an activity in the field of education and training.
This article presents a discourse analysis approach to the statements made by teachers of French as a foreign language (FLE) within an educational program that combines a component focused on the pedagogical aspects of teaching—conducted during monthly meetings—with a component involving the co-analysis of their work through the method of self-confrontation. Specifically, our objective is to analyze linguistic and discursive indicators in order to shed light on the development of reflection regarding work experience. The article presents an analytical and interpretive framework that helps us understand how discussing the lived experience of a work situation can serve as a source for the development of reflection on the labor experience. This manifests itself through the transformation of the meaning of the experience and the opening up of new possibilities for action. The data analysis aims to identify “traces” of reflection on the work experience of the teachers involved, in order to illustrate the function and functioning of language in situations where lived work experiences are recounted.
The aim of this text is to analyse bimodal traces – that is, those comprising two different media (in this case, an image and its title) – in order to explore their potential for conveying a novice teacher’s relationship with their challenging experience. These records originate from two methods of analysing teaching practice that utilise the ‘addressed photograph’ technique in initial and continuing teacher training. In response to a specific challenge they have encountered, each participant submits a titled image that they have created themselves. The article presents a three-stage analysis of these bimodal records. First, by examining the precise composition of the two media. Next, using indicators designed to characterise their proximity to the participants’ lived experience. Finally, a third analytical framework examines what bimodality contributes to these traces, both cumulatively and in terms of the interrelationship between the two media. This makes it possible to identify the indexical potential of these traces. The results confirm their relevance for examining the relationship to workplace challenges, even when their connection to the workplace is not immediately apparent.
This article explores interprofessional collaborations within Autism Preschool Education Units (UEMA), which cater to children aged 3 to 5 with autism spectrum disorder. Based on semi-structured interviews conducted with 17 professionals and a thematic analysis, our study highlights the importance of regular and diverse exchanges to ensure consistent support adapted to the specific needs of these pupils. Team members — including special education teachers, educators, psychologists, and speech therapists — stress the need to share common goals and coordinate in order to adjust interventions. However, challenges remain, particularly in terms of coordination and time management. This article emphasizes the co-construction of educational objectives involving all professionals, in order to create an individualized and multidisciplinary project. This teamwork is essential to overcome obstacles and foster student progress.
This article looks back at the creation of an illustrated world map activity carried out as part of a study on children's representations of the global space. This activity takes place within a multi-methodological protocol deployed in a survey conducted among 248 children aged 6 to 11 and enrolled in four Parisian primary schools. Asking children to create an illustrated world map allows us to understand how they structure global space. The findings reveal a world organised around notable landmarks and distinct modes of regional identification, revealing stereotypical visions internalised from a young age. The activity and the sharing of its results with the children also helped to address educational issues. By placing children at the heart of learning, enabling them to develop geographical reasoning on a global scale and combating stereotypes, the creation of an illustrated world map offers ways to rethink global education in schools.
This article discusses the use, in training, of traces of the language activity of Principal Education Advisors (CPE) during interviews with parents of pupils. These recordings, consisting of transcribed audio files, are the result of research that combined the framework of professional didactics with Kerbrat-Orecchioni's interactionist linguistic theory. In the initial training of school counselors (CPEs), the subject of this contribution, they are also used to provide access to real-life work situations and to facilitate practice in their analysis. The CPEs are guided to analyze the recordings in three stages: determining the relationship between the protagonists, identifying their intentions and the stakes of the situation, and analyzing the plot to understand the school-family relationships. The article reviews the role of the trace in professional didactics, questions the nature of these traces, their link with real language activity and questions the conditions of their didacticization with the aim of promoting the learning and professional development of future CPEs.
Analyzing pedagogical controversies as social processes requires us to tackle direct effects as well as discarded alternatives, their institutional and political contexts. The case study of controversies on Catholic Religious Instruction in Italian State schools, between 1974 and 1984, illustrates how collectives and experts present reform projects, confront each project with others, and secure political allies. The defeat of these various projects of modernization, deconfessionalization and abolition of mandatory Religious Instruction, shows the central role of collective actions to translate these projects in the political field, and the weight of phases of valorization of pedagogical expertise against concurrent legal expertise on religion. “Religious culture”, made official by the revision of the Concordat between the Italian Republic and the Holy See in 1984, symbolizes both a justification of the Catholic status quo and some effects of these conflicts.
In Geneva's elementary school, religious facts take up a lot of space. As Geneva is a secular Swiss canton, this subject is integrated into the history teaching and must be approached from a scientific perspective. This article looks at the extent to which lessons on religion, when taught to very young pupils, can meet the scientific requirements of the historical discipline. By analyzing discussion forums produced by teachers-in-training, who relate their internship experiences, the research shows that it is not easy to guarantee the application of a secular approach in the classroom. What's more, it's not easy for teachers to comply with institutional recommendations concerning the neutrality of their posture when interacting with pupils, especially the youngest. Thus, the school institution's desire to institute the study of religious facts in all grades raises a number of difficulties, leading us to wonder to what extent it is possible to translate political injunctions without first ensuring their applicability.
This article examines children's perspectives on their experiences of so-called 'collective' or 'organised' leisure activities in 'generalist' leisure settings such as leisure centres (formerly called 'centres de loisirs' or 'centres aérés'). Based on an analysis of the content of a digital platform that collects publications by groups of children reported by activity teams, the article presents how these perspectives are structured around several themes: the activities carried out, the importance of elective relationships, the role of play, the relationship with supervision and criticisms of the organisation. By reintegrating these perspectives into children's conceptions of leisure, the article provides a better understanding of how future, and juvenile, disaffection for these organised forms of leisure arose after the transition to secondary school.
The articles gathered in this issue of the journal examine how religion is addressed in schools in contexts characterized by secularization and democratic requirement. From a comparative perspective (France, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium) and multidisciplinary (historical, sociological, didactic, philosophical), they explore how educational systems—secular, religious, or neutral—arrange the transmission of knowledge, conditional pluralism, and scientific requirements through educational policies and teaching practices in the areas of citizenship education and religious education. Far from adopting a single interpretation of the decline of religion, these contributions highlight the complexity of the dynamics of secularization in the schools of democracy.
This article presents an analysis of some of the empirical data from two studies of teaching-learning situations in elementary schools. Educational situations are complex and need to be explored using a variety of approaches if they are not to be reduced to a single dimension. The phenomenological approach makes it possible to explore this complexity, based on the intersubjectivity of the actors involved. It values the lived experience of the actors (teachers and students) and relies on the intentional link they forge with their experiences. This approach offers advantages for research in the educational sciences, but needs to be combined with other methodologies, notably from the activity clinic, in order to be operationalized. This article describes the analysis operations derived from this approach, and outlines the potential contributions and points of vigilance that guided the data analysis activity.
The place of biblical texts and methods of reading the Bible is not the same in France and Belgium, starting with the discipline in which they are studied (history and French in France: this article will focus on French classes; religion classes in Belgium: here we will focus on Catholic religion classes in French-speaking schools). The aim is to explain how the disciplinary framework determines the ways in which texts are read and how, paradoxically, the confessional approach to the text in Belgium allows for a more pluralistic approach to biblical texts, due both to the fact that the course is spread over the six years of secondary school and to the variety of exegetical approaches.
Private Muslim education is a recent and minority sector of the French educational landscape. Nonetheless, it has been the focus of increased political and media attention since the 2015 attacks, particularly with regard to religious education and citizenship instruction. However, these establishments were conceived in response to a demand for social and educational equality (in favor of quality establishments in working-class neighborhoods), as well as religious equality (to provide Muslims with a denominational network). The civic socialization practices deployed in these schools fall within the general framework provided by the moral and civic education (EMC) programs, but are also invested in specific ways, in favor of the "openness" of their pupils or to create links with Islamic morality.
