Sustainable development refers to the processes adopted to achieve the long-term goal of a more sustainable world (UNESCO, 2012), i.e. a world fit to answer the needs of present and future generations. Education plays a key role in these processes, as highlighted by UNESCO´s (2012) Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) responses to the present challenges faced by the environment, economy and society. Besides learning about sustainability, ESD involves the advancement of critical thinking and problem-solving about all dimensions of well-being (Aslan & Curle, 2024). Religion is one of these dimensions (Souza, forthcoming), and one which has been identified as leading to experiences of social inequalities by language learners (Mambu, 2022). In this presentation, I highlight the importance of religion for migrant groups and report on data of a larger study which explored identity and religious issues in language teaching. More specifically, I share data provided by Brazilian teachers of Portuguese as a Heritage Language (HL) in complementary schools in five European countries – England, Germany, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. The study draws on the concept of religious identity (Hemming & Madge, 2011) to better understand in which ways religion influences the teaching practices of this group of teachers. The data were collected via an online questionnaire and qualitative semi-structured interviews. The results indicate that educational policies in the host countries lead to the exclusion of religion from the curriculum implemented by the Brazilian complementary schools. However, Afro-Brazilian religions are covered as part of Brazil´s cultural heritage, in exclusion of a variety of other religions present in the country. Therefore, I argue that, in order to achieve sustainable heritage language learning, considerations about a diversity of religious identities should be made going beyond an intercultural communication perspective, the field in which religion is commonly addressed in secular schools (Wane et al. 2011). In conclusion, I suggest that collaboration be developed between migrant faith settings and complementary schools with a view to promote a continuity of the HL teachers´ and learners´ experiences between the two settings and, thus, impact positively in their wellbeing.

Aslan, S. & Curle, S. (2024) Institutionalising English as a foreign language teachers for global sustainability: Perceptions of education for sustainable development in Turkey, International Journal of Educational Research, 125(102353): 1-12. Hemming, P. & Madge, N. (2011) Researching children, youth and religion: identity, complexity and agency, Childhood, 19(1): 38-51. Souza, A. (2026, forthcoming) Realising the power of religion in the experiences of heritage language learners. In: Liu, Y. & Anderson, J. (eds.) The Professional Knowledge Base for Heritage Language Education in a Multilingual World. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. Mambu, J. (2023) Embedding Sustainable Development Goals into critical English language teaching and learning, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 20(1): 46-76. DOI: 10.1080/15427587.2022.2099863 UNESCO. (2012) Education for sustainable development: Available: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/926unesco9.pdf. Accessed: 08 Aug 2025. Wane, N. N; Manyimo, E. L.; Ritskes, E.J. (orgs.) (2011) Spirituality, Education & Society An Integrated Approach. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.