Failure in school, educational exclusion: What is the student excluded from and how?

Abstract

The article has a committed approach to the causes and factors presently involved in the processes of school failure and educational exclusion. It stems from the conceptual ambiguity of both ideas. It defends the idea that there are more questions than clear answers on both topics, and offers a self-critical view of the school. The article denounces the stereotypes and self-interested and partial views on school failure. It attempts to situate and review what vulnerability and school exclusion are, and it presents an ecological model for understanding them. It reviews what the students are excluded from and the motors that maintain these processes. It claims an obligation to fight against school failure and provide a quality educational response for everyone, that is capable of including especially the most vulnerable groups. It bets on the confluence in a new educational and social policy agenda of a convergence of factors, levels, structures and actions that provide a response based on the principal of equity. It concludes by describing how this convergence should occur and on what key dimensions it would be necessary to act.