Abstract: In France, the research on education emerged from the empirical humanities. Throughout the 19th century, it remained "embodied" in them without considering its own independence. At the beginning of the 20th century, the development of quantitative methods allowed a new growth of knowledge in the field of education in French-speaking countries and as a result, educational science began to take an independent form. In these countries, the empirical study of education was entangled with psychology from the very beginning, and it vision also extended to the field of sociology. Gradually, as various disciplines all developed their own concerns with educational reality, a regime of "fragmentation" had been established, represented by organization structure of higher education research institutions. However, the fact that educational practice requires for integrity had broken the state of fragmentation. In particular, policy-makers had also shown a strong interest in educational research since the 1960s, and set up their own research institutions. The "fragmentary" and "holistic" approach to knowledge production may have led to completely different patterns of knowledge in France in the late 20th century.