PE teachers in a wealthy neighborhood high school: When institutional norms influence lessons

This article focuses on the sociology of physical education (PE) in an elite high school. Using a socio-didactic approach, we paint a portrait of five PE teachers currently working at the Lycée Henri-IV in Paris. By cross-referencing investigation techniques and favoring an ethnographic approach (repeated in-situ long term observations, comprehensive interviews with the teachers, and questionnaires directed at the pupils), we set out to describe the local and social conditions in which the PE lessons take place, in order to show how the institutional norms of an elite high school impose themselves on women in this professional group, who are equally influenced by the social variables of the school population.