INTRODUCTION

Utopia is not a chimera. It is daydreaming and imagining that the new is possible in spite of all odds to the contrary. Those who play with utopias move from a deep critique of the present time towards the creative mess of projecting other lives, economic models, schools, histories (^{COLOMBO, 2009}). Imagining utopias allows the wind of hope to scatter everything that is certain, determined, safe, all guidelines, all end points (^{JACOBY, 2007}). Creating utopias opens space for what is not yet, but can be (^{BLOCH, 2005}), for the courage to start the new in the encounter with others (^{ARENDT, 2009}).

Utopia is not a common noun, a state. If the path already exists, it is not utopia. It is action, always mobile, it is narration. It can be remade, transformed, denied, without commitment to pre-defined rules. Whoever wants to produce a closed future and impose it on others, does not make utopia. A future project that implies suffering, exploitation, destruction, death, injustice, is not utopia either (^{QUARTA, 2009}). Utopia is verb, movement. Useless and indispensable.

These movements are thought-provoking for thinking about history teacher education in its relations to politics, a theme explored by the author and partners in a series of previous investigations, which included extensive interviews and classroom observations with Brazilian and Spanish teachers (^{PACIEVITCH, 2014}), as well as closed-ended questionnaires answered by Brazilian, Argentine, Chilean, Paraguayan, and Uruguayan teachers (PACIEVITCH; CERRI, 2016). The results of these investigations allowed to raise some assumptions: first, the stereotype of the Marxist, revolutionary, socialist or anarchist history teacher is not confirmed. All of these may be part of teacher utopias, but they do not define them. Second, the political and educational utopias expressed by history teachers are generally about being a good teacher who teaches well and who teaches content that broadens the worldview and contributes to the lives of students. It is useful without being utilitarian. The biggest dream is that the world is fair, that people have dignified lives and that school is effectively public, universal, free, lay, emancipating and of good quality: something close to the enlightenment ideals, notably expressed in French revolutionary projects (PIOZZI, 2008). Finally, the tensions between theory and practice, education and history, content and method, repeated in the academic discourse on history teacher education, lose relevance in the teachers' testimonies precisely when the focus of the debate is the utopias. Looking at these dichotomies through dreams implodes the barriers and allows us to express the profession in a sensitive and powerful way for the creation of the new.

The approximation with enlightenment educational projects motivated the interest in listening more attentively to French teachers, researchers, and professional associations, which was done in research conducted in 2016. The present article is a cut from that research and aims to analyze the presence of political and educational utopias in journal editorials published by two French teaching associations between 1998 and 2016: Historiens & Géographes, under the responsibility of the Association des Professeurs d'Histoire et de Géographie de l'Enseignement Publique (APHG) and Les Clionautes, belonging to the association of the same name. Both associations represent only teachers of basic education. The editorials present convictions and flags of struggle for which histoire-géographie teachers would mobilize in France, mixing elements of militancy for professional status, academic references, and conceptions of education and history teaching. This debate is pertinent to the fields of teacher education and of the journals and magazines on history teaching and education, by addressing issues such as neutrality in teaching, social devaluation, hierarchization of knowledge, dichotomy between teaching and research, memory disputes, redemptive vision on education, among others (^{NUNES, 2011}; ^{PROST, 2013}; ^{SILVA, 2014}; ^{PINHEIRO, 2015}).

The methodology used to analyze the editorials was the following: reading in full all the editorials located between 1998 and 2016, followed by the selection of those that dealt with history teacher education or that, in some way, expressed political-educational utopias on the subject. The excerpts that denoted this presence (from the understanding of political-educational utopia presented at the beginning of this article) were transcribed. Three categories emerged from the excerpts and guide the following analyses: a) historiography, pedagogy and teachers' intellectuals; b) conflicts between teachers, politicians and the media; c) didactics and the role of history in the future of students. Research with other interests would certainly detect other themes, such as the analysis of curriculum proposals, reflections on the relations between memory and history, and criticism of educational policies in general. For the purposes of this article, the main focus is on the third theme: consequential history teaching objectives for the formulation of teaching responsibilities.

The search was conducted on the archive page of the Journal Historiens & Géographes². From 2011, the texts made available in a compilation file of the journal's editorials were used which, although incomplete, offered an overview of the content of the editorials proposed by the journal from the late 1990s to 2016. However, only from 1998 onwards are the editorials available in full. Regarding Les Clionautes, although the association has existed since 1998, editorials were located only from the years 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016, of which nine are cited in this text. This was another reason why the analysis of APHG editorials was not taken back, given the difficulty in collating them with Les Clionautes³.

In the following sections, each of the journals is presented and excerpts from the editorials that have the potential to dialogue with the assumptions made for this argument are explored. The chronological order in which the editorials were published is not the most relevant here. It is important to go through the statements and question how they produce places, subjects, and relations in the education of history teachers, especially in their political dimensions (^{FOUCAULT, 2013}). At the end, it is intended to discuss the pertinence of listening to the voices of French teachers' associations. The intention is to maintain a state of openness to other possibilities of collective debate, in which the pedagogical, the historiographical and the political do not remain watertight, much less in competition and/or in a hierarchical relationship.

HISTORIENS & GÉOGRAPHES

The Association des Professeurs d'Histoire et de Géographie de l'Enseignement Publique (APHG) was founded in 1910 and has over 9,000 members. Its goal is to defend the interests and freedom of teaching histoire-géographie and enseignement moral et civique (EMC)⁴. The APHG is considered to be the spokesperson of the concerns of history teachers in the face of the modifications they see in the official programs and, especially, in the classroom (^{GARCIA; LEDUC, 2003}).

Perhaps the main mark of the analyzed editorials was combativeness. Although there is no partisan political polarization, whenever the association considers that its interests are under attack, advocacy measures are taken, such as requesting audiences with authorities and, especially, calling for the mobilization of members. Although some editorials refer to social movements such as the Indignados (Outraged)⁵, no notes of support for any kind of association, union, group on strike, etc. were noted. Members are called upon to support historians who would be prosecuted for supposedly offending the memory of certain groups. Any move that constrains historiographical work (such as, for example, memorial laws) is rejected in the name of truth and historical science. To defend against accusations that French national history perpetuates racism, xenophobia, and coloniality, the banner of neutrality is raised. For Historiens & Géographes, the history classroom does not need to accommodate the demands of social movements or memorialistic commemorations: it is up to historiography to update itself. As a consequence of historiographical advance, these issues will appear in school. This posture opens room for criticism of corporativism and refusal to negotiate with society, to which the Association replies that they use the same principles as the academic historian in all their public positions.

Thus, there is a predominant identification in Historiens & Géographes with scientific historians, much more than with educators or pedagogues. In fact, Pedagogy is another source of attacks against which they would need to protect themselves. If, on the one hand, teachers should be careful not to become militants of a "cause," a "community," a "political party" (^{MARCONIS, 2005}, p. 54), on the other hand, they should not surrender to pedagogical innovations that remove their authority to transmit French history to all students, regardless of origin, sex, color or class. For the magazine, keeping teaching as a transmission - mainly verbal and written - of historical truths dominated by the teacher is essential for education to be democratic. Pedagogical innovations would be responsible for lightening the general culture of the students and thus disaggregating the vivre ensemble of the Republic. Eventually, however, editorials do acknowledge some social demands, but in their own fashion.

Helping all students to understand the complexity of the world, its diversity, its past, and the issues and conflicts of the present time, responds to a major mission of the school and an intense social demand, which is directed notably at history and geography teachers. This mission assumes, on the part of teachers, important scientific and pedagogical competencies, a permanent critical eye and a constant care for tolerance. Abandoning this mission would mean surrendering to pressure groups of various kinds, from the political or religious "authorities" [...], always ready to discredit the teachers' work, their routine, the archaism of their methods [...] their refusal to open up to the "realities of society", whether that of business, of "religion"... In these domains they are, alas, helped by pedagogues whose critical eye, necessary, ends up being instrumentalized. [...] Nice occasion for the political powers to compensate for the decrease in class schedules and resources. (^{MARCONIS, 2006c}, p. 62)⁶.

Marconis recognizes that there are new subjects that need to be taught, but teachers can do so without the interference of ready-made activities offered by institutions outside of academic science. And they do so precisely because they have rigorous scientific and pedagogical training provided by the University and high-level public research organizations (^{MARCONIS, 2006c}, p.62). The Editorial calls: "that the school provides students with a high-level scientific education, that this education teaches them to reflect on the complex relationships between societies and their environment, so that they become able to act as free citizens and choose to engage in the service of one cause or another [...]" (MARCONIS, 2006c, p.63)⁷.

The quote demonstrates the belief in the power of knowledge to awaken understanding of the world and provide free adherence to the causes that each one considers valid, refusing that organizations with militant discourse have open space in the school to replace the teaching discourse itself, or subliminally convey the message that science is not able to provoke the necessary engagement. In July/August 2015, the president calls on everyone to disseminate and discuss a list, formulated from a consultation with members, about the goals of the history teacher.

The main struggle, for APHG, is to maintain the identity of the teacher as the one responsible for transmitting knowledge and methods of history and geography and never surrender the identity of cultural animator. It seems to be difficult to accept that the profile of students has changed and that this transforms - regardless of what each individual wishes - the ways of teaching and the historical content itself. In other words, despite valuing the potential of thinking historically for tolerance and democratic life, they find it difficult to submit their own profession to a historical look.

In the editorial signed by ^{Marconis of May/June 2000}, one finds a synthesis of what APHG proposes for histoire-géographie teaching: the centrality of history and the addition of so-called innovative perspectives (such as Information and Communication Technologies). However, there is a lack of addressing the challenges experienced by teachers on a daily basis: the diversity among students and the lack of meaning of some historical knowledge - an aspect that is most addressed by Les Clionautes.

Closely associated, history and geography should essentially contribute to the formation of men and citizens, providing them with the knowledge and methods indispensable to living in society, acting, exercising their responsibilities. All this with awareness and freedom, based on solid and serene reflection, anchored in time and space. In this perspective, the teaching of history and geography must be guaranteed to all students, from elementary school to the baccalaureate, by means of competent and well-trained teachers, based on curricula that are periodically revised in light of advances in scientific and pedagogical research and social demand, with sufficient hours for serious, effective and attractive work, concerned with taking advantage of the opportunities offered by new information and communication technologies. With these foundations, anything is possible. (^{MARCONIS, 2000}, p. 15)⁹

The last statement is reckless, as it ignores the youth cultures and uncertainties of the classroom and risks holding teachers responsible for whatever does not work if the material foundations are secured. It still maintains disciplinary knowledge as the main character of teaching and learning. The editorial of October/November 2007 reinforces APHG's position towards the policies of memory and commemoration that are being inserted in schools.

Public commemoration is not the same as the history professed in public school.

Memory is not History; they are at once distinct and inseparable, with inevitable overlaps in connecting zones.

Public authorities are responsible for Memory policies.

To history teachers, the contents of the history taught. (^{PEYROT, 2007}, p. 85)¹⁰

Faced with such principles, the teacher's responsibility is easy to discern.

The teacher, for his part, is torn between two registers. Through his training, he knows the importance of scientific history. Inserted in society, he cannot ignore the first register, that of Memory. As a consequence, he accompanies the commemoration, he can use it as a hook for his class. He inscribes the commemoration in a context, clarifies it, completes it, and, by completing it, corrects it. (^{PEYROT, 2007}, p. 85)¹¹

Thus, the APHG fights for teaching autonomy: "[...] We want the freedom to research and tell the truth about history" (^{PEYROT, 2007}, p. 86, emphasis in original)¹². Autonomy based on a deep knowledge of historical science that guarantees the transmission of truth to students. The public power can and should build the programs, but never interfere in the way each teacher teaches. The same is expressed in the editorial of July/August 2011: "as Historians or Geographers, we are the representatives of a general culture, for too long neglected, and which is today claimed in all instances of professional life" (^{BENOIT, 2011a}, p. 13)¹³.

In May 2012, the editorial calls on teachers and principals, the ministry and parents, to fight to guarantee the right to study histoire-géographie in the science-oriented terminales de lycées. The text reminds that this is a citoyenne decision and not a bureaucratic one (^{BENOIT, 2012a}, p. 8). The same struggle follows in the editorial of October/November 2012, in which the utopian role of history teaching is reinforced:

[...] I dare say that a future engineer, banker, company member, doctor, lawyer or economist imperatively needs a civilizing, geopolitical and memorialistic culture that History and Geography provide. [...] APHG, since its creation, has always been open so that all young people, even in vocational education, receive the same instruction in History and Geography, the basis of the republican vivre ensemble. To be a citizen of the world in which he will evolve, the student [...] needs historical and geographic knowledge that opens the spirit, offers room for reflection and forms tolerance. (^{BENOIT, 2012b}, p. 3)¹⁴

The editorial further addresses the Aggiornamento Hist-Géo¹⁵ collective and defends itself against accusations of conservatism and corporatism. Nevertheless, in the editorial of February 2014, for the first time the author calls for a direct intervention against relevant social problems: "with solid knowledge and a decent workload, History and Geography form a barrier against racism and anti-Semitism" (^{BENOIT, 2014c}, p. 2)¹⁶. Were these signs of an aggiornamento of APHG?

However, in the following editorials, reflections on racism or other types of discrimination do not appear. Faced with the numerous celebrations imposed on the school, the July/August 2014 editorial reinforces that the responsibility of transmitting the values of the Republic lies with history teachers.

[...] who, in school, teaches young French people how the Republic was built, what battles were waged against its opponents and its invaders, how the nation was forged, how the French people were formed, what the motto Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, but also secularism means? It is those who are the vectors of this knowledge: history and geography teachers! (^{BENOIT, 2014a}, p. 2)¹⁷

The editorial further states that history and geography alone cannot accomplish the goal of promoting tolerance, but that it will not become more concrete by reducing the workload of these subjects (^{BENOIT, 2014a}). In May/June 2015, APHG defends itself again against accusations of conservatism, replicating that the school that excludes and harms is not the traditional school, but the one that refuses to spread culture (BENOIT, 2015a).

This overview of Historiens & Géographes demonstrates that the relationships between politics and history teacher education cannot be reduced to partisan or ideological location, although such a beacon is necessary given the relationship with the arguments set forth in public policy and the media. The focus is on how knowledge, scientific knowledge, and the role of instruction and education (specifically in History) in the transformation of society are understood. In the case of APHG, the defense of knowledge and the methods of historiography as tools for the formation of citizens and their integration into society prevails. Accused of defending an elitist stance, the association rebuts by trusting that the school's duty is to ensure that everyone has access to historical science. Because they understand that science, by itself, exercises self-criticism and renewal, it would respond to social demands without the need for external pressure. Young people should accept what school has always offered, since didactic innovations would remove teaching authority and impair learning.

These editorials express blends between politics, history, and pedagogy, involving educational public policy and associational militancy. Although Historiens & Géographes considered its purposes representative of the French histoire-géographie teachers as a whole, other perspectives were found in the editorials of the association Les Clionautes, explored in the next section.

LES CLIONAUTES

According to its official website, Les Clionautes is a professional culture association created to engage in public debates about teaching histoire-géographie and EMC, as well as to produce and disseminate knowledge about the teaching practice of these disciplines. Also according to the page, the editorials represent the opinion of those who sign them and not a single line of thought of the association¹⁸. Almost all the editorials are signed by the president, Bruno Modica. The technique used for the selection of the editorials was the same as for the previous section: reading all the editorials in their entirety, separating those that mentioned the objectives of Les Clionautes, the utopian meanings for teaching and, consequently, the teachers' responsibilities and positions on teacher education.

Next, an overview of the editorials is presented, highlighting the contrasts between the positioning of each magazine. Then, we analyze the excerpts that make explicit educational-political utopias and conceptions about teaching responsibilities, in the view of those who sign the editorials. Due to the short range of editorials found, and because the same president signed almost all of them, it is not possible to note significant differences in positions from one period to another. However, it is possible to contrast the opinions regarding the forms of expression chosen by Clionautes and Historiens & Géographes on the same subjects. Such a fact contributes to the critique and to nuance the dichotomous or exclusionary views that were outlined in the previous section.

Like the APHG, Les Clionautes are aware of the attacks they receive from the media and resent the criticism - which they consider unfounded - of teachers' elitism or unwillingness. However, the Clionautes' position is to avoid watertight classifications, recognizing themselves as a group of teachers who need both the disciplinary and the pedagogical approaches. The disciplinary approach has a slight preponderance, but there is no hierarchy between the two. The search for positive and negative points is noted, which would be verified not only by academic reflection, but by the fact that the associates are teachers in effective activity in the school. This is a relevant difference with Historiens & Géographes.

The group's objective is not only to write and publish criticism, but to make proposals, which are almost always attached to the editorials and which would be the subject of intense debates on the association's mailing list. In this way, the image that Les Clionautes intends to transmit is that of a group with open theoretical-methodological and ideological perspectives and willing to engage in propositional dialogue, seeking to distance itself from sectarianism. The editorials do not mention with which other association they would be comparing themselves.

This search for an alignment between theoretical reflection, engagement in public debates and valuing the teaching experience directs the opinions stated in the editorials about teacher education and recruitment, since, even if subtly, the problems discussed by Historiens & Géographes are mentioned, such as curriculum reforms, the precariousness of the teaching work and the competitive examinations. However, the vision of Les Clionautes is firm on the principles of defending the specificity of the disciplinary contents, but without taboos. Avoiding dichotomies and absolute truths without giving up basic principles, this is the essential starting point of the (rare) editorials' arguments on teacher education.

It was possible to note Les Clionautes' position, in some editorials, against racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia, notably when history or memory are manipulated to foster this type of discrimination. But the main banner of the association is the values of the French Republic, as well as knowledge and reason to broaden the worldviews of young people. To each of these flags correspond, almost always, statements about teaching responsibility.

The first theme - and the most recurrent - is the construction of critical thinking and the ability to locate oneself in the world and make decisions. The words highlighted in the following quote echo the questioning about the media, critical thinking, and prudence in constructing opinions.

It is on this ground that we must appear as references for our students of a certain ethics in matters of access to and appreciation of information. [...] This role should lead to autonomous reflection, whether based on arguments, on verified sources, and finally to favor the belonging of everyone to the "public thing", to the Republic, in short. (^{MODICA, Apr. 2013}, p. 2)¹⁹

The possibility to interfere in public opinion, to criticize the instrumentalization of history and memory, to take a stand before what academics and activists say is a privilege of the histoire-géographie and EMC disciplines. According to ^{Modica, its greatest strength and also its greatest challenge (May 2013}, p. 2-3). This is the lien citoyen, evoked to justify arguments and recovered several times in editorials over time.

Concrete examples about the role that disciplines can fulfill in the face of current challenges are taken from the experience of the editorialists, although the statements said as mottos or as appeals predominate: "it is because we give to discover and read the world, both that of the past and that of today, to build the world of tomorrow, that we say, simply, to each as to others, communication actors, decision-makers, opinion-makers, listen to us!" (^{MODICA; STEVENOT, May 2015}, p. 2, original emphasis)²⁰. And further:

Constitutive of the formation of the citizen, history and geography are indispensable milestones that allow us to build a future. [...] At all levels of education we advocate mandatory and adapted content, research of excellence within the respect for the founding values of the republican school. (^{MODICA, Dec. 2013}, p. 1)²¹

But the most revealing are those based on concrete examples, in this case where President Bruno Modica comments on a tweet published by the then mayor of the city of Béziers.

Source: message on the social network Twitter, posted by the then mayor of Béziers, on October 30, 2015. Available at: https://is.gd/urrlNn. Accessed on: 5 Nov. 2020.

Figure 1: Robert Ménard's²² tweet 

Rather than simply disapproving of the mayor's position, the editorial combines irony, humor, and professionalism, checking what connections could be made between the publication and the official syllabus of the subjects histoire-géographie and EMC. The author then provides a quote from the official curriculum and suggestions for work. In this way, the criticism of the mayor's opinion and the denunciation of intolerance and racism are explicit, without leaving aside the teaching métier. In 2015, during the attacks in January and December, the editorials call for teachers' commitment to republican and secular values, taking care not to generalize about the guilty parties, again using examples from the classroom or historiography.

It is an ordeal, let's not hide it. The last deadliest attack on French soil (28 victims) was blamed on OAS killers who believed they were defending the Christian West²³. The present attack seems linked to fundamentalism that hijacks the message of peace and love of one of the great monotheisms. In both cases the killers show a total contempt about human life. (^{MODICA, Jan. 2015}, p.3 - original note).²⁴

We, histoire-géographie teachers, know the catastrophic situation in the Middle East and make constant reference to it in our classes [...], we must once again offer our young people a healthy understanding and retreat in the face of facts of an unprecedented emotional breadth for them. Many are the dead who were no more than the age of our students. And we find, as the investigation progresses, that some of the killers were also quite young.

We must answer their questions, and answer them with humanity, but also with all the scientific authority that, among others, Les Clionautes contribute to strengthen debates and propositions, but also to watch over the scientificity of our subjects taught in the world of research and teaching. (LE COMITÉ ÉDITORIAL DES CLIONAUTES, Nov. 2015, p .1)²⁵

The last quote demonstrates the attachment to the students' opinions and interests, something that teachers cannot shy away from and must be empathetic to. However, their role is not to listen like psychologists, but to teach them to analyze all factors, using historical knowledge and method. A few months later, faced with a publication in a fundamentalist newspaper, the spirit of combat and secular warfare²⁶ with the weapons of knowledge remains. Along with the combative tenor of the editorial, the appreciation of secularism as a value that does not exclude, but rather welcomes everyone because it is universal, stands out. The nuances in the understanding of the values of the Republic are part of the reflections of the teachers participating in this research and constitute points of contrast between the interviews, the editorials and the educational legislation, especially between the teachers' testimonies and the official discourse. In this sense, the citizen value of the historical knowledge and the values of the Republic, as well as the combat against all kinds of prejudice lead to the enunciation of the teachers' responsibilities, which should always be nuanced with criticisms of training and working conditions.

Veber, who signs some editorials, recognizes the accountability of teachers and tries to balance the different demands, showing the preponderance of knowledge - mastered by the teacher - in solving broader social problems. He takes up the goals for which the French republican school was founded by Jules Ferry in the 19th century and which would still be the same, only more extended. He recognizes that the current challenges are different, but argues that the school should not be labeled as exclusionary, but seen as one of the great incubators of change. History teachers would already be at the forefront of these changes (^{VEBER, Oct. 2014}).

To conclude, ^{Modica (Sept.2015}), again responding to xenophobic placements by the Béziers prefecture, summarizes the challenge and responsibility of the histoire-géographie and EMC teacher in the face of both flesh-and-blood students and the knowledges of history:

[...] in Béziers, I will be both an evaluator of knowledge and a bearer of the moral and civic values that found our republican pact. And once again, Kevin and Khaled, Özul and Catherine, Pierre, Isabelle and Charles-Henri will be together, on the benches of the school of the Republic, and will be able to acquire the tools of knowledge and critical reflection that will make them actors of their destiny.... (^{MODICA, Sept. 2015}, p. 4)²⁷

It is not through activist discourse or memorization: the revolution - humanist, of knowledge - happens every day in school through the relationships between the lives of young people, knowledge, and possible futures. These young people are not presented here in an essentialist way, as if they had no history, no ethno-racial belonging, no gender, only future citizens of the Republic. They are - this is the most important difference with Historiens & Géographes - people with very different life perspectives, who need to be welcomed and given opportunities to maintain and recreate the French nation.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS: PLAYING WITH UTOPIAS AND TEACHING HISTORY

On one hand, the journal Historiens & Géographes presents a combative character and an uncompromising defense of the teacher as a wise man who transmits scientific knowledge, whose training should be guided primarily by historical science. Thus, the responsibility of the teacher is, fundamentally, to transmit historiographical knowledge and its methods. The construction of citizenship, the constancy of republican values and the capacity to make rational decisions are consequences of the transmission of knowledge. The defense of teachers' interests comes first, in the face of attacks coming from the ministry and the media.

The editorials of Les Clionautes avoid clinging to closed perspectives. While historical science is also a value for this association, pedagogical and didactic training is relevant in almost equal measure. It proposes its insertion in stages prior to the public examination and criticizes the notion that all professional learning is only valuable when done in contact with the terrain, thus valuing the production of knowledge in didactics and in the sciences of education. Democratic and republican ideals and a humanistic perspective on history teaching recur, conforming political-educational utopias about history teaching and teacher education that are sensitive to classroom life.

Political-educational utopias about history teaching are present in the editorials of both associations, as well as the establishment of teacher responsibilities. However, in the case of Historiens & Géographes, a posture of distrust, perhaps resentful, prevails in the face of the uncertain and the chaotic that utopia moves. By refusing to meet the political, editorials seem to retreat before the window opened by utopia, taking refuge in the roman national (CITRON, 1987) and in transmissive teaching. They flee from utopia and erect walls between history and teaching, denying the potency of classroom life and clinging to a supposed scientific authority that is less and less socially recognized. In Les Clionautes, on the other hand, the humanist perspective on teaching and the history teacher is an important recurrence, in which the tensions between politics, historiography, and didactics merge in the search for meanings for the profession and in meanings for militancy - whether in the classroom, in the association, or in public clashes around history and memory.

Looking at France, and at these two associations in particular, it has been possible to highlight how the focus on utopias makes the dichotomies between history and teaching - if not irrelevant - not very decisive. When history teachers are provoked to talk about their dreams, perspectives, and professional responsibilities, the separation between "teaching" and "knowing history" can be broken down. Teaching history is not about passing on information about the past, supported by teaching methods, nor is it about some ideal measure between technical competence and political commitment.

Teaching history is happening, open to encounters with students and to listening to the world - an element that frightens in Historiens & Géographes, but which is welcomed in Les Clionautes. Welcoming the students with their bodies and all that this implies: gender, family background, race, class, age, religion, fears, desires, and knowledge. On the other hand, they are not limited to their bodies, precisely because of their confidence in the power of estrangement brought about by the scientific language of history and its clashes with memory. The utopia of the history class that welcomes and teaches runs through everything. The way in which Modica confronts the mayor of Béziers is exemplary, for it attests that the responsibility of history teachers is to affect the world to make it a better place: history teachers combat racism, xenophobia, and ignorance through the creative power of the history class, with humor, knowledge, and sensitivity.