Abstract
In this article we analyse how the appeal to a consensus was made in the official pedagogic discourse of the 11th Portuguese constitutional government. We have taken into consideration the guiding values of the decision process and the beliefs associated with the impact of the educational policy, and its results in terms of the consensus reached in the relationship with the political parties represented in Parliament.We have found that it was a successful rhetoric construction of the discourse that triggered, besides the agreement naturally presupposed as the basis of consensus with the party that parliamentary supported the government, a willingness to act in the other political parties represented in Parliament. Nevertheless, this consensus was achieved by the typical ambivalence between conviction and persuasion that is associated with any consensus reached through rhetorical means and not by decisions of rational motivation that may have been prompted by a convincing official pedagogic discourse.
Keywords:
consensus; official pedagogic discourse; educational policy; rhetoric