This presentation aims at analyzing literacy practices related to race, gender and intersectionalities legitimized by English textbooks in Brazil. We rely on the conceptions of ideology, language ideologies, ideological literacies and on a performative approach to identities to scrutinize literacy practices which focus on identity performances of race, gender and their intersections.
Curricular Frameworks in Brazil have established the promotion of the Afro-Brazilian and indigenous culture and history as well as the human rights as a compulsory part of Brazilian basic education. The institution of three sets of curricular frameworks (Parecer CNE/CP nº 3/2004; Resolução CNE/CP nº 01/2004; Parecer CNE/CP nº 8/2012) determines that textbooks approved in the scope of the National Program of Textbooks (PNLD) should be free of any stereotype related to race, gender, sexuality and promote human rights. These textbooks are thus expected to provide literacy practices in which black and indigenous people’s bodies, cultures and lifestyles become a central part of knowledge construction processes. Despite the mandatory character of these frameworks, the guidelines provided by PNLD don’t bring clear criteria and/or instructions concerning how textbooks should approach ethnic-racial and human rights issues. Consequently, authors’ responsive attitudes to this demand and the approaches they privilege can be countless. Based on the perception that racial issues and their intersectionalities related to gender, sexuality, social class etc. are insufficiently and superficially addressed in English textbooks, this presentation aims at analyzing literacy practices related to race, gender and intersectionalities legitimized by textbooks approved in PNLD 2020. We rely on the conceptions of ideology (Volóchinov, 2017 [1929]), language ideologies (Woolard, 1998; Kroskrity, 2004), ideological literacies (Street, 2014 [1995]) and on a performative approach to identities (Moita Lopes & Bastos, 2010) to scrutinize literacy practices which focus on identity performances of race, gender and their intersections in the target English textbooks.
