Union positions in progressive Uruguay around the signifier "educational inclusion”: disputes of meaning and political-pedagogical demands in secondary education

Abstract

This article adopts a post-foundational perspective that highlights the inherently conflictive nature of the social sphere to analyse the positions of trade unions on the educational inclusion policies implemented in Uruguay during the progressive period (2005-2019) in secondary education. The paper begins with a conceptual approach on the contributions of the post-foundational perspective to think about educational processes. It then focuses on the positions of the union, particularly with regard to the disputes of meaning in relation to inclusion policies and political-pedagogical demands. The analysis recovers the dialogue between the disputes and demands of the teachers' union and the school form of secondary education. The study  uses a qualitative methodology and works with documents elaborated by the union organization during the selected period. The analysis aims at contributingto the production of knowledge on the disputes and demands of the teachers' collectives and their possibilities to think about transformation processes in the framework of educational projects that are always inhabited by a constitutive negativity that makes them (im)possible.