The exclusion in the"Ciclo Básico": a pedagogy of appearances

Abstract

The objective of this article is to contribute to a discussion about the school exclusion process of those students who attend the"Ciclo Básico" at the Public School System. From a school intervention praxis, two main causes are stressed as grounds of failure: 1) students tranfered from other schools generally fail in the current school; 2) classes are considered heterogeneous as to the number of repeating students, but in fact they are treated as"weak" or"strong" classes and this may determine the student's pass or flop expectations. School failure is bound to rely on very different causes from those claimed for as student's incapacity. Such a school has an"as if" attitude that contrasts with its own repeating practices. It is similar to Government Educational Policy concerned mostly with getting the problem around, instead of solving it.