Intercultural Perspective and Knowledge for Equity in the Mercosul Countries: Limits and potentials in educational policies

Abstract

This article discusses the extent to which the tension between globalized moves towards market-oriented educational policies and the pressing need to respond to cultural diversity and inequality surfaces in the way knowledge is viewed in the educational policies of the recently created Mercosul block. In a critical intercultural theoretical framework, it explores the local context of sociocultural inequality and considers limits and potentials for working out knowledge for equity and transformation as proposed by two influential agencies in the area-the World Bank and CEPAL (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, from UNESCO)-and developed in the Brazilian national curricular guidelines, which are taken as a case study.