Juliette Michelet completed a Master’s degree in Career Counseling, Guidance, and Assessment Psychology at Paris Nanterre University (2023–2025). During her studies, she contributed to the evaluation of the OEPRE program (integration of immigrant parents in priority education) and conducted a meta-analysis on the relationship between socioeconomic status and metacognitive development.

In 2025, she was awarded a CIFRE doctoral contract supported by the NGO Alliance pour l’éducation – United Way to study the Défi Jeunesse program implemented in middle schools within the “REP” and “REP+” priority education networks.

Her doctoral research, supervised by Carlo Barone (CRIS, Sciences Po) and Coralie Chevallier (IJN, ENS), adopts an integrative perspective that bridges the sociology of education, psychology, and cognitive sciences to better understand the mechanisms underlying educational inequality reproduction. Using this transdisciplinary approach, she explores how socioeconomic contexts and public policies shape not only educational opportunities but also students’ aspirations.

Her professional experience in adult training and socio-educational mentoring informs a research practice deeply rooted in field realities and guided by concerns for educational and social justice.

Socioeconomic background, student motivations and track choice in France: evidence from a mentorship program among lower secondary students (provisional title)

Although students from disadvantaged backgrounds often express professional aspirations that are broadly comparable to those of their more privileged peers—when school performance is equivalent—a paradox remains: they are more likely to drop out of school and to enter shorter educational tracks. Current explanations based on informational deficits or motivational differences partly account for this phenomenon, yet they fail to explain why some students give up education altogether, even when enrolled in vocational pathways with clear labour market opportunities.

This doctoral research proposes a new perspective, suggesting that disadvantaged students may pursue alternative routes to achieve their professional goals because the formal education system does not provide enough assurance of “return on investment.”

Drawing on a longitudinal study conducted across several REP  and REP+  middle schools in France’s Priority Education Networks, and using a mixed-methods design with standardized questionnaires, interviews, and field observations, this research aims to identify the psychological mechanisms underlying divergent educational trajectories within unstable sociocultural contexts.

Findings will contribute to the development of the Défi Jeunesse program, which seeks to strengthen students’ guidance skills and future orientation in priority education schools.

Supervisors: Carlo Barone (Sciences Po – CRIS) and Coralie Chevallier (INSERM / ENS-PSL, Institut Jean Nicod)
Funding: CIFRE PhD Fellowship – Alliance pour l’éducation – United Way (2025–2028)

Socioeconomic background, student motivations and track choice in France: evidence from a mentorship program among lower secondary students (provisional title)

• 2024-2025, "Altruisme et carrière", Licence Sciences pour un monde durable, PSL Université.

• Michelet, J., Beuchot, T., Chevallier, C., Mercier, H., in prep, "People vs Things".
• Michelet, J., Maximino-Pinheiro, M., Barone, C., Borst, G., in prep, "Socio-economic status and metacognitive development: a meta-analysis".
• McGuire, J., Dupret, S., (…), Michelet, J., Beuchot, T. (2024), "The wellbeing cost-effectiveness of StrongMinds and Friendship Bench: Combining a systematic review and meta-analysis with charity-related data", Happier Lives Institute report.