Intercultural Perspective and Knowledge for Equity in the Mercosul Countries: limits and potentials in educational policies

This article discusses the extent to which the tension between globalized m oves towards market-oriented educational policies and the pressing need to respond to cultural diversity and inequality surfaces in the way knowledge is viewed in the educational policies of the recently created Mercosul bloc k. In a critical intercultural theoretical framework, it explores the local context of sociocultural inequality and considers limits and potentials fo r working out knowledge for equity and transformation as proposed by two in fluential agencies in the area-the World Bank and CEPAL (Economic Commissio n for Latin America and the Caribbean, from UNESCO)-and developed in the Br azilian national curricular guidelines, which are taken as a case study.