Race and racism are present in the everyday life of millions of black Brazilians, who constitute most of the population (over 53% according to the last census), and black people have long been excluded from those who speak English. Textbooks and syllabi stereotype black people as lazy, dangerous, and irrational, ignoring the artistic movements and new language styles with which they have opposed the precariousness imposed by white colonisers in the past. But racism is not considered central in language studies and language education, and debates about bilingual education focus on eg the privatisation of language teaching.

This paper examines Brazilian language education and how anti-racist frameworks have challenged processes of marginalisation in language studies. It moves forward with issues that are not wholly conceptualised as “racial” in Brazilian language education, and looks to the notion of 'linguistic citizenship', drawing on data collected with teachers of English.

Speaker: Gabriel Nascimento do Santos

Gabriel Nascimento do Santos is assistant professor at the Institute of Humanities, Arts and Sciences of the Universidade Federal do Sul da Bahia, and was Visiting Scholar at the Graduate School of Education of the University of Pennsylvania.

He is now a permanent professor of the postgraduate programme of Linguistics and Literature at the Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz. His research interests revolve around the interplay of language and racism, racism in English language teaching in Brazil, and English language coursebooks.

RSVP

This seminar is open to all students and staff in the School of Education, Communication & Society. Just come to Roome 1.70 in Franklin Wilkins Building directly. 

For those external to the School of Education, Communication & Society, please email ldc-ecs@kcl.ac.uk to RSVP.

This event was part of the LDC Research Seminar Series.