[Conférence JoRISS] The Evolution and Practice of Education Governance Models in French Normal Universities – A Case Study of École Normale Supérieure de Lyon

À l'occasion de sa visite à Lyon, le JoRISS est heureux de recevoir la Professeure Dan ZHANG de la Faculté d'Éducation de l'East China Normal University de Shanghai. Non seulement la Professeure Dan ZHANG a une grande familiarité avec notre établissement pour y avoir fait ses études doctorales dans le cadre du programme d'échange doctoral PROSFER, mais elle l'a en outre pris pour objet d'études. Elle présentera lors d'une conférence un ouvrage publié en 2024 aux presses de l'East China Normal University qui rassemble les principaux éléments de cette recherche.

The Evolution and Practice of Education Governance Models in French Normal Universities –  A Case Study of École Normale Supérieure de Lyon

The key to improving the modern university system is to reconcile the conflicts between administrative centralization and autonomy in universities. Traditionally, university autonomy in Europe emphasizes academic governance; however, French normal universities have integrated government-led and academic governance through the inheritance of the traditional system of centralization and the political reform of decentralization, and have combined loose coupling and a specialized bureaucratic structure in the practice of university governance. Consequently, a governance approach has emerged that is characterized by the progressive reform of the centralized government control over universities, and the avoidance of the “dependence” of academic organizations on administrative levels. In the reform of governance, French normal universities have gradually developed government-led governance that takes into account market-oriented, regional and local needs，thus integrating education research, and industries in the development of higher education institutions, and established a systematic pattern of joint governance by multi-stakeholders such as the state, the market, local authorities, university organizations, and individuals; and practiced a cross-parallel approach in the internal governance system by means of integrating academic autonomy with specialized hierarchical governance under the leadership of university presidents, and promoting democratic governance by means of encouraging active participation from professors and students. This governance model and the policy network model of multi-subject coexistence are of certain significance for the promotion of the modernization of university governance.

Dan Zhang is a Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the Institute of International and Comparative Education, Faculty of Education, East China Normal University (ECNU), where she also serves as Deputy Director of the institute of international and Comparative Education and Director of the Inclusive Education Research Center. She holds dual doctoral degrees in Sociology and Education.

Professor Zhang earned her PhD from the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon in France and has conducted visiting research at several internationally renowned institutions, including the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Hamburg, and the University of Cambridge, where she was a Visiting Fellow at Wolfson College.