This paper analyzes some shifts in pedagogical practices that correspond to the conceptual changes that have occurred in the last four decades, more precisely since the pedagogy of the oppressed was formulated, at the end of 1960s. It proposes a brief review of social exclusion, especially in terms of its implications for educational practices and policies, relating it to three explicative axes identified as: the pedagogical consensus; the semantic dislocation from oppression to hegemony, and; the critique of modernity and the post modern theories. It is argued that the social exclusion-social inclusion pair is relevant to denounce the multiple forms of inequalities and, as an instrument, to implement social policies. Paradoxically, these very aspects constitute its limits when it comes to projecting possibilities to transform the excluding social organization.
Social exclusion; Paulo Freire; Pedagogical practice; Pedagogy of exclusion; Pedagogy of the oppressed