Scholarisation, apprenticeship and social differentiation. Analysis of the non-industrial craft sector in Morocco Etienne Gerard Institut de recherche ´ pour le De ´veloppement, UMR 196 CEPED Paris Descartes/INED/IRD, Paris, France The sociological literature on formal schooling in the countries of the ‘South’ usually adopts one of two approaches. The first takes the educational institution as the only referent: its operations, internal logics, and governing policies, as well as the realities of the school environment, are examined to determine the factors that account for unequal levels of formal schooling and, more generally, to identify and characterise the role of formal schooling in society. The second approach places greater emphasis on the social logics at work in schooling, on the social representation of school, or practices and strategies around schooling. The aim is to study the relationship of populations and social groups to educational institutions. Thus, in both cases, it is the educational institution itself that serves as the principal object of analysis. This paper will pursue a third, and complementary, approach, suggested by the differential level of integration and trajectories of social mobility in countries where primary education has not yet been generalised (and higher education even less so). Among the various factors accounting for this differential, individual orientations towards the various training systems, whether academic or non-academic, figure prominently. Artisanal appren- ticeship, as it is practiced in Morocco, especially in Fez, is an example of a non-academic system, whose codes and rules are not public. The world of Moroccan artisanal crafts is based, first and foremost, on a patrimonial model. To this day, it is reproduced through a regulated system of transmission of technical knowl- edge, in which ‘hands-on’ learning plays a central role. Such apprenticeship learning is practised in craft workshops in Fez, Morocco. The Protectorate’s (1912–56) policy aimed to profes- sionalise artisanal production by setting up vocational schools (most notably traditional weaving schools), but not in Fez (Chikhaoui, 2002, p. 80). ‘Formal’ training is now available in public vocational schools (run by the Office of Vocational Training and Work Promotion). However, this kind of training remains marginal (only one such school exists in Fez), and so will not be considered in the present analysis. This practical and technical knowledge system exists in parallel with the formal institutional knowledge system represented by the institution of the school. Both involve a set of rules for the development and transmission of knowledge, informing social relationships (including power relationships) between individuals who are distinguished by their mastery of certain skills. They are also accompanied by specific social modalities of integration and mobility. But the apprenticeship system is undergoing profound transformation, along with changes in the labour market and the production system, on the one hand, and the institutionalisation of education, on the other. International Journal of Educational Development 32 (2012) 172–178 ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Morocco Craftsmen environment Schooling ‘‘relationships with knowledge’’ ‘reasons of knowing’ ABSTRACT The article approaches the question of the schooling processes in the particular environment of the Moroccan craftsmen of Fez. It shows that the weak schooling of the children is bound to the representations and to the ways of transmission of craft industry knowledge. Schooling is, indeed, the object of tensions between a school system of western inspiration and the Muslim system of transmitting patrimonial knowledge. The article shows then that schooling is integrated into craftsmen’s ‘relationships with knowledge’ and ‘reasons of knowing’: because of historic development factors of the school system in Morocco, and of sociological factors of domination in the craftsmen’s environment, schooling is not indeed legitimate for most craftsmen. It is not even always ‘‘possible’’: in fact, social reproduction in craftsmen’s environment is indeed, and because of the previous factors, based on holding positions bound to the mastery of the traditional knowledge and of the production market, rather than to the possession of school capital. On the other hand, schooling has gained strong legitimacy at a general society level, so that the craftsmen, and especially their children, are more and more the victims of social declassification. ß 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. E-mail address: gerardeti@yahoo.fr. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Educational Development journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijedudev 0738-0593/$ – see front matter ß 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2011.05.005