"The emergence, in the mid-twentieth century, of an integrated French educational system that embraces all levels and tracks within a `unique' organised structure of compulsory school education for children between 6 and 16 years of age came with a renewal of the distinctions between the professional identities, trajectories and careers of the various categories of teachers. While this system has helped to redefine, and to some extent blur, the divisions between teaching groups, their professional identities and administrative statuses have remained quite distinct, mainly because of persisting forms of institutional differentiation. In addition, some new lines of division can be observed. Our argument draws on a review of the socio-historical research conducted in relation to three teaching groups (primary school teachers, agrégés and technical and vocational education teachers) and on a particular case study of the contract teachers (contractuels) whose rise marks a new form of segmentation among teachers in France."