Ideological and Theoretical Considerations to Postcolonial Education in the Lusophone Countries

Abstract

This special issue stems from two thematic panels on language and education in the Lusophone world which took place in 2019—one at the University of Santiago de Compostela, and the other at the University of Sheffield. The issue examines the tensions between the linguistic diversity in the Lusophone world and the largely monolingual education systems that remain in place to this day. Taking the education system as a key site for both the reproduction and the contestation of inequality, the issue reflects on how deeply ingrained monolingual and monoglossic ideologies serve to marginalise local languages and local varieties of Portuguese, and the implications of this for access to and participation in education, and for broader questions of social mobility and social justice. As such, in this issue we take a critical approach and contend that linguistic research and insights from Lusophone countries can make a crucial contribution to understanding key social, ideological, and political power struggles and help to bridge the perennial gap between theory and practice in language and education contexts. Para a versão em português clique no botão de download à direita.