Learning difficulties in the educational context: a critical-reflexive approach to curriculum and pedagogical practice through a decolonial lens

Abstract

This article presents a State-of-the-Knowledge study on learning and teaching difficulties in the school context, highlighting their relationship with the rigidity of a colonial-structured curriculum that historically reproduces exclusionary practices. The study aimed to systematize recent scientific publications on the subject by analyzing theoretical, methodological, and critical perspectives, as well as identifying intervention proposals oriented toward less hierarchical educational practices. The research was grounded in the hypothesis that learning difficulties are closely connected to teaching challenges resulting from a rigid educational system historically aligned with the maintenance of elitist cultural standards. The study was conducted through a bibliographic survey in databases such as the Biblioteca Digital Brasileira de Teses e Dissertações (BDTD) and the Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), resulting in the selection of 17 studies, including 11 master’s dissertations, 1 doctoral thesis, and 5 scientific articles. The analysis identified central categories such as institutional conceptions, teachers’ perspectives, family–school relationships, students’ self-perceptions, implications of specific disorders, intervention strategies, and the political construction of the concept within the school context. The results indicate theoretical advances and relevant strategies for addressing learning difficulties; however, they also reveal the persistence of practices that tend to place responsibility for such difficulties on students themselves. It is concluded that confronting these issues requires rethinking teaching in its epistemological, pedagogical, and political dimensions, overcoming colonial and elitist logics, and promoting more flexible and inclusive curricula sensitive to the historical, social, and cultural specificities of diverse learners in contemporary educational contexts.