Robert Mérand: His role in developing the theoretical bases of Maurice Baquet’s courses

This study aims to clarify Robert Mérand’s contribution to the selection of theoretical references used in Maurice Baquet’s courses. It is mainly based on the analysis of the federal review of the FSGT and on the archives of the federation held at the Archives nationales du monde du travail, as well as on various documents helping to trace the genealogy of these references. These sources make it possible to describe the organization, functioning, and evolution of Maurice Baquet’s courses: the preparation of the courses is based on an increasingly important preliminary reflection work with which an increasingly broad group is associated. The courses are based on a division of the collective work of educational research which is becoming progressively more refined, and in which Mérand occupies a central position. Theoretical references were initially orthodox references for an organization close to the Communist Party, but by the end of the 1960s, they went beyond the limits of the communist intellectual sphere. Due to his position at the crossroads of several networks, Robert Mérand is a key player in this evolution, even if he is not strictly speaking the discoverer of all the references mobilized.