Abstract
This article presents a historical analysis of discourses about language and literacy that have emerged during different periods in the political and cultural history of Portugal. It covers six periods, from the colonial era to the present, and it considers different geopolitical spaces, including the Portuguese mainland, the Atlantic archipelagos, former Portuguese colonies and diasporic spaces created as a result of emigration from Portugal. The article traces three kinds of discursive shift: (1) shifts in discourses in Portuguese society regarding the goals of language and literacy education, along with associated discourses about appropriate language and literacy pedagogies; (2) shifts in discourses about the specific nature and significance of literacy in Portuguese; and (3) shifts in discourses about the value and symbolic power of standardized forms of spoken and written Portuguese. It shows how each historical period has been characterized by distinctive political and ideological currents which have, in turn, shaped and re-shaped ways of thinking about the role of language and literacy education in the definition of citizenship and national identity, in the construction of heritage, in the creation of a “modern” democratic state and, more recently, in the retooling of human resources to create a flexible labour force.
Acknowledgements
This publication results from support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under its Strategic Plan (UID/SOC/50012/2013).
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© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Literacy in the study of social change: Lusophone perspectives
- Discourses about language and literacy education in Portugal: past and present
- Timor-Leste 1974–1975: Decolonisation, a nation-in-waiting and an adult literacy campaign
- Adult literacy in Timor-Leste: Insights from ethnographic research with teachers, learners and coordinators of contemporary literacy programs
- A critical analysis of literacy discourses in two urban neighbourhoods in Brazil
- Meanings of literacy in the intersection of religious and secular practices: examining local and global changes in a Brazilian bairro
- Taking account of discourses, literacy practices and uses of texts in ethnographic research on educational inclusion: insights from two studies in Brazil
- Opening up ideological spaces for multilingual literacies at the margins of the Portuguese education system? Ethnographic insights from a Russian complementary school
- Book Review
- Judy Kalman and Brian Street: Literacy and numeracy in Latin America: local perspectives and beyond
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- Literacy in the study of social change: Lusophone perspectives
- Discourses about language and literacy education in Portugal: past and present
- Timor-Leste 1974–1975: Decolonisation, a nation-in-waiting and an adult literacy campaign
- Adult literacy in Timor-Leste: Insights from ethnographic research with teachers, learners and coordinators of contemporary literacy programs
- A critical analysis of literacy discourses in two urban neighbourhoods in Brazil
- Meanings of literacy in the intersection of religious and secular practices: examining local and global changes in a Brazilian bairro
- Taking account of discourses, literacy practices and uses of texts in ethnographic research on educational inclusion: insights from two studies in Brazil
- Opening up ideological spaces for multilingual literacies at the margins of the Portuguese education system? Ethnographic insights from a Russian complementary school
- Book Review
- Judy Kalman and Brian Street: Literacy and numeracy in Latin America: local perspectives and beyond