An education for linguistic and cultural diversity may be generally defined as a way of placing languages, with different status and typologies, in the educational agenda, and thus foster the development of a linguistic citizenship (Stroud, 2001). It intends to counteract the imposition of some languages over others, in a way to concur to more sustainable and equalitarian societies in terms of human rights, including linguistic and cultural rights (Skutnabb-Kangas, 2009). As Van Parijs (2010) explains, such perspective of an education for linguistic and cultural diversity can be situated in the context of an inclusive and corrective education, since in its core is the purpose of diluting language dominance and subordination (Macedo, Dendrinos & Gounari, 2006), the “(de)valorization of certain speakers and certain languages”, and thus contribute to social inclusion associated with multilingualism (Piller, 2012: 282).

From this viewpoint, the treasuring of languages is seen as a matter of social and linguistic justice, which is perceived as the possibility of different speakers having the same opportunities to use their languages, namely in educational contexts, alongside with deserving access to the same symbolic and capital assets, and therefore have their cultural and linguistic heritage preserved. Thus, a language education that is concerned with linguistic justice tries to ensure that the same dignity is bestowed to the languages that are part of each individual’s trajectory, as well as to go against the absence of respect for “dominated languages and their native speakers” (Parijs, 2011: 6) by making them part of curriculum.

As we see it, the development of educational practices towards linguistic and cultural diversity depends on teachers’ understanding of (i) the need for linguistic and communicative justice and well-being in education, but also of (ii) the awareness of the possibilities and constraints to carry out such practices in view of contextual, curricular and (inter) personal factors. In other words, the fostering of linguistic justice in language education involves the understanding of the reasons and possibilities for integrating other languages besides the languages of the territory or school in the educational times and settings (Martins, 2008; Sá, 2012).

Languages are seen as sets of resources (ways of having access to material and immaterial goods), as mediation spaces in the access to education, as well as connected with processes of belonging, and possibilities of social and political participation. Accordingly, it is not enough to value diversity, because “Even in contexts where multilingualism is explicitly valued as an avenue to social inclusion, an understanding of multilingualism as multiple monolingual competencies is an exclusionary outcome” (Piller & Takahashi, 2011: 372).

The process of learning languages is an opportunity that individuals have to make an effort to understand the others, their forms of expression and communication, and thus “to escape the arrogance and the insensitivity to cultural differences that come too easily to those who have never had to undergo that humbling process and are invariably in the comfortable position of being able to use their mother tongue” (Van Parijs, 2010: 188). Therefore, educational settings need to include moments for intercultural dialogue, and spaces for language change and contact, so that individuals can develop deeper understanding of others, themselves and the world (Andrade & Sá, 2012). In this context, pluralistic approaches to languages and cultures (Candelier et al., 2004; Candelier et al., 2007) are seen as pathways to the valuing, integration and management of diversity and of each individual’s linguistic and cultural identity in educational practices. Hence, the importance to identify gateways for integrating languages and cultures in the curriculum, in the scope of a flexible management of school curriculum and teaching practices, particularly in the first years of schooling.

Andrade, A. I & Sá, S. (2012). Educação para o desenvolvimento sustentável e diversidade linguística: que possibilidades? Lingua e Ecoloxía. VIII Xornadas sobre Lingua e Usos (pp. 87-112). A Coruña: Universidade da Coruña. Candelier, M., Andrade, A. I., Bernaus, M., Kervran, M., Martins, F., Murkowska, A., Noguerol, A., Oomen-Welke, I., Perregaux, C., Saudan, V., & Zielinska, J. (2004). Janua Linguarum – The Gateway to Languages. The Introduction of Language Awareness in the Curriculum: Awakening of Languages. Strasbourg: European Centre for Modern Languages, Council of Europe. Candelier, M., Camilleri-Grima, A., Castellotti, V., De Pietro, J.-F., Lörincz, I., Meissner, F.-J., Schröder-Sura, A., Noguerol, A., & Molinié, M. (2007). Framework of References for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures. Graz: European Centre for Modern Languages, Council of Europe. Macedo, D., Dendrinos, B. & Gounari, P. (2006). A hegemonia da língua inglesa. Mangualde: Edições Pedago. Martins, F. (2008). Formação para a diversidade linguística - um estudo com futuros professores do 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico. Aveiro: Universidade de Aveiro Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/1470. Piller, I. (2012). Multilingualism and social exclusion. In M. Martin-Jones, A. Blackledge and A. Creese (eds). The Routledge handbook of multilingualism (pp. 281-296). London and New York. Piller, I. & Takahashi, K. (2011). Linguistic diversity and social inclusion. Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 14 (4), 371-381. Sá, S. (2012). Diversidade linguística e educação para um futuro sustentável que potencialidades nos primeiros anos de escolaridade? Non-published PhD thesis. Aveio: Universidade de Aveiro. Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2009). The stakes: Linguistic diversity, linguistic human rights and mother-tongue-based multilingual education or linguistic genocide, crimes against humanity and an even faster destruction of biodiversity and our planet. Retrieved from: http://www.tove-skutnabb-kangas.org/pdf/Tove_Skutnabb_Kangas_Keynote_presentation_at_Bamako_International_Forum_on_Multilingualism_Bamako_Mali_19_21_Jan_2009.pdf (05.08.2013). Stroud, Ch. (2001) African Mother-tongue programmes and the politics of language: linguistic citizenship versus Linguistic Human Rights, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 22(4), 339-355. Van Parijs, Ph. (2010): Linguistic justice and the territorial imperative, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 13 (1), 181-202. Van Parijs, Ph. (2011). The linguistic territoriality principle: right violation or parity of esteem? In P. De Grauwe & Ph. Van Parijs (coord.), Re-Bel e-book 11 (pp. 5-20). Brussels: Re-Bel Initiative. Retrieved from http://www.rethinkingbelgium.eu/rebel-initiative-files/ebooks/ebook-11/Re-Bel-e-book-11.pdf (31.07.2013).