Antonieta Megale
The debate on Bilingual Education in Brazil: is it possible to break the logic of the neoliberal trap?
Abstract
Brazil has always worked hard and violently for the institution of Portuguese as its only language through successive glottocides. However, nowadays, we encourage and value bilingual schools, which have instruction through two prestigious languages - standard Portuguese and, in most cases, English. How this phenomenon can be understood is the first question addressed in this plenary.
It will also be discussed the fact that the neoliberal logic has advanced in a predatory way over schools, which have been incorporating the bilingual label to attract new students. We will then reflect on possibilities to move away from the neoliberal agenda in bilingual education.
Bio
Antonieta Megale holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics from Unicamp, completed a doctoral internship at the University of Viadrina (Germany) and has a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from PUC/SP. Currently, she is a post doctoral researcher at PUC/SP.
Antonieta is a professor in the Language department at UNIFESP and coordinates the bilingual education graduate program at Instituto Singularidades, where she also works as a Professor of the undergraduate program in Education.