ABSTRACT
Brazil is the largest country in South America, both in size and population, and the only Portuguese speaking country in South America. Despite the hegemony of the Brazilian Portuguese language, there is a linguistic diversity of more than 200 languages that reflects the history of the enslavement of African and Indigenous peoples, as well as the increased global mobility caused by volunteer or forced migration in modern times. Diverse and unequal, the country struggles with establishing inclusive language and educational policies and urgently needs to confront language ideologies and linguistic racism. Thus, this chapter discusses the literacies made in Brazil by problematizing the historical, ideological, and political forces that have impacted language and educational policies and practices. It addresses three dimensions of global literacies by suggesting the term subaltern cosmopolitan literacies as a fruitful alternative to frame literacies being developed in Brazilian education.
