Thesis on the production of educational offerings in middle schools defended at LEST

The research analyzes the construction of educational paths and the role of local regulations in students' access to resources.

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AI

Generic image of a stack of academic books on a wooden desk, with a blurred background of bookshelves.

On October 9, 2026, Mounayad Ali defended at LEST his thesis titled "The production of educational offerings in middle school: actors, regulations, and the construction of students' educational packages", contributing to the sociology of education.

The research, supervised by Thierry Berthet and Patrick Pérez, examines how institutions construct their educational offerings and organize students' access to proposed resources and programs. It analyzes how educational resources, programs, and their access methods are articulated at the institutional level.
Based on the longitudinal follow-up of 571 students over three years (2022-2025) in four middle schools with contrasting characteristics, the thesis employs a mixed methodology combining institutional ethnography, repeated interviews, and administrative data. It highlights the role of local regulations in constructing the "educational packages" to which students have effective access, as well as the organizational mechanisms that contribute to differentiating their school paths.
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"Both in the meticulous construction of concepts, the scope of the mixed longitudinal methodology developed, and the originality of the analyses conducted, Mounayad's thesis constitutes a remarkable contribution to French sociology of education."

Thierry Berthet · Thesis Director
The jury, chaired by Georges Felouzis and composed of Anne Barrère, Ariane Richard-Bossez, and Xavier Pons, unanimously praised the scientific quality of the thesis, highlighting the rigorous construction of concepts, the breadth of the methodology, and the originality of the analyses. The research thus sheds light on the processes by which school organizations shape, sometimes in subtle ways, inequalities in access to educational resources and student trajectories.
Based on information from the official source: LEST - Laboratoire d'Économie et de Sociologie du Travail (21/10/2026)