Abstract
This research is based on a survey of regents, teachers of Calandretas, immersive bilingual Occitan schools. The aim is to study how the construction of their professional identity is shaped by the use of institutional pedagogy (PI) and the choice to teach in Occitan. Following a questionnaire survey (n=81), semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven of the respondents. The verbatim analysis was carried out in two stages: the construction of in-depth individual portraits, and then a comparative analysis of the verbatim. The choice of a comprehensive approach gives us access to the possible effects of this dual perspective. In this way, we are attempting to understand how these regents train and transform themselves throughout their professional careers, by understanding how and with what transactions the use of PI, and their relationship with language, influences their identity construction.Our research shows that regents reclaim their inherited identity by sublimating it in the professional sphere. The claim of their language appears as an accepted facet of their self, open to the world and inclined to welcome difference. Like the public-school teachers, the regents had to overcome challenges to strengthen their nascent professional identity and acculturate themselves to the complexity of the profession. This is particularly true when it comes to dealing with parents, who are particularly involved in Calandreta. Calandreta has made a strong choice with APRENE, ensuring a rich and demanding initial training program, with a dual immersion in Occitan and PI to support regents in their professional careers. As a result, this year remains a point of reference that they regularly return to.It also appears that the combination of PI and immersive language generates a climate conducive to the co-construction of a language environment suitable for the welcoming function in the classroom. On a macro level, it seems that while Calandreta needs the IP to facilitate language access and secondary socialization, the IP reciprocally finds in Calandreta a valuable territory for dissemination and experimentation.