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.