Policies of inclusion: compulsory education or the right to education?

Abstract

This article deals, from a theoretical perspective and via an ideological analysis, with the joining of policies of inclusion, as a palliative from exclusion, with the postulation of individual rights, especially in the field of education. A study on the origins and fluctuations of the notion of exclusion/inclusion, in their relationship with neo-liberal ideologies and its subsequent “progressive” interpretations is included. The contemporary proposal on individual rights, its features and ideological background, is analysed, paying special attention to the processes in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. Policies of inclusion and rights exhibit parallel lines, with intersections that are relative rather than structural, both in relation to their political formulation as well as to their implementation. Their relationships becomes notorious when education is defined in terms of rights. In particular, the article looks deeper into the composition of the conceptual and operative conflicts that derive from the encounter between the traditional policies on compulsory basic education, which is statutory in most countries, and the attempts at defining education as an instrument to ensure the enjoyment of internationally recognised rights that have become the norm in legislation on education.