Governmentality and inclusive education in neoliberal times

Abstract

With the advance of neoliberalism, education has become a privileged arena for implementing inclusion through policies, discourses, strategies, and technologies of power-knowledge. In this context, the governmentalized State takes a special interest in the population, developing and circulating practices that shape ways of life oriented toward competitiveness, efficiency, and self-responsibility. Neoliberal reforms establish norms that position individuals within networks of knowledge and market-oriented spaces, converting them into normalized human capital adapted to the demands of the economic system. This article aims to problematize inclusive education as a strategic resource for normalization and the production of market-oriented subjectivities, linking it to the concepts of governmentality and biopolitics. It is an exploratory bibliographic study, developed through qualitative analysis of reference works and academic productions by Michel Foucault and other authors who discuss the interface between neoliberalism and inclusive education. The results indicate that, although supported by legal frameworks, school inclusion is weakened by neoliberal rationalities that reduce its emancipatory potential and reinforce processes of in/exclusion, demanding a critical approach capable of challenging hegemonic discourses and fostering pedagogical practices that value differences as transformative potential.