Pedagogising poverty alleviation: a discourse analysis of educational and social policies in Argentina and Chile

For the past decades international organisations and governments have promoted
and implemented analogous education policies on the grounds that education is the
key factor to foster development and fight poverty. This article sets the context of
these educational programmes and analyses their discourse on poverty in
Argentina and Chile. Then, it shows how they institutionalise strict surveillance,
institutional denigration of the poor and professional scepticism. In general, the
conclusions underpin one hypothesis that leads the analysis: eventually, these
targeted education policies ‘pedagogise’ poverty alleviation in that they aim to
‘instil flexible identities’ into the poor rather than open channels for social
inclusion.