Excellence as an oppressive model

violence and coexistence at school

Abstract

 Although the issue of ‘school violence’ is highly complex, it tends to be approached in a restricted way, usually centred on interpersonal violence between pupils or between pupils and teachers. This paper is not intended to examine its many forms, but to contribute to the discussion of this issue as a social phenomenon. It is argued that neoliberal violence today constitutes one of the most intense forms of oppression, especially as it manifests itself in a hidden, disguised and even legitimised way. In addition to a theoretical-conceptual discussion of the phenomenon and its relationship with the oppressive model of academic excellence, the case of a Portuguese cluster of schools that includes non-violence and the promotion of coexistence in the school environment in its principles and practices. As the author of this work is a consultant for this cluster of schools, a ‘critical friendship’ approach was adopted in an attempt to deal with familiarity through critical and refexive surveillance. The schools that are part of it are located in a socially and economically vulnerable area which includes the so-called ‘social neighbourhood’, inhabited largely by ‘gypsies’ and ‘immigrants’. Although it cannot remain on the fringes of neoliberal policies that are hostile to its political-pedagogical proposal based on human rights, its commitment to children and adolescents and the families and communities it covers means that it is less orientated towards excellence and more towards experience and affection, thus occupying an inclusive place in its territory.