In 2015, the Brazilian Ministry of Education published a new set of requirements for Language Teacher Education programs (Resolution 2/2015), which included an increase in the number of minimum required hours of study and a larger number of hours for practicum classes. Since then, universities have reformed and/or redesigned their curricula to meet the new policy, based not only on the new requirements but also on current scholarship in Applied Linguistics and Literary Studies. However, there is little research on whether new curricula have addressed issues pertaining to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), particularly to curricular and onto-epistemic justice, considering the extent of gender, racial, regional, and other inequalities in Brazil. In this article, we address this gap by investigating how EDI has (not) been included and contemplated/considered in the curricula of English undergraduate programs in three Brazilian public universities. Drawing on conceptualizations of decoloniality and social/curricular justice, we use collective autoethnography to analyze our own experiences as language educators working with such curricula, paying attention to the following dimensions: whether EDI has been incorporated in the overall conception of each program; whether there are classes that address notions pertaining to EDI; and how (or how else) we may find space for including EDI principles in each program. Our results show that EDI generally goes through a process of conceptual diluting in curricular discourses. Therefore, EDI initiatives often operate in curricular margins, through individualized initiatives, particularly in research and community service practices.
Since the mid-1990s, compulsory education in Brazil (the equivalent to K-12 in many contexts) has gone through a number of policy changes that have been influential both for language teaching/learning in school classrooms and also for how language teacher education is conceptualized and conducted in universities. Major educational policies that have been passed and established in the country during this period include: the Law of Directions and Foundations of Education (Lei de Diretrizes e Bases, or LDB in Brazilian Portuguese, henceforth BP) in 1996 (Congresso Nacional, 1996); the National Curricular Guidelines (Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais, PCNs in BP) in 1998 (Secretaria de Educação Fundamental, 1998) for elementary and middle schools, and in 2000 for high schools (Secretaria de Educação Média e Tecnológica, 2000); the Curriculum Orientations to High Schools (Orientações Curriculares para o Ensino Médio, or OCEM in BP) in 2006 (Secretaria de Educação Média e Tecnológica, 2006); and the recently passed National Common Core Curriculum (Base Nacional Comum Curricular, or BNCC in BP) in 2017 (Ministério da Educação, 2017).
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