Paradoxical Pedagogy: Michelet, Education and Social Mobility

The role of education was central to the intellectual debate in 19th-century France because it provided a battleground for the definition of society and the control of the future. What knowledge was made available and who had access to it were contentious issues. Michelet's personal experience – his rise from an artisanal background to bourgeois status – and his discourse of inclusivity belied the more conservative views he held, views that conformed more closely to the prevalent discourses of his era. (VK)