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This study investigates how Brazilian educators employ translanguaging as a method to inclusively teach Indigenous and refugee multilingual learners.

July 6, 2026

‘Essa é a nossa luta!’ Educators’ perspectives on translanguaging as an inclusive pedagogy for Indigenous and refugee multilingual learners in Brazilian public schools

Key Points

This study investigates how Brazilian educators employ translanguaging as a method to inclusively teach Indigenous and refugee multilingual learners.
Qualitative analysis of data from 53 educators
Geographical diversity including rural, semi-urban, and urban areas in Brazil
Focus on teachers' reframing of Portuguese as a welcoming language rather than a tool for assimilation.
Educators utilize context-sensitive translanguaging to affirm students' identities and incorporate Indigenous traditions.
Barriers include limited infrastructure and lack of teacher training, impacting the implementation of inclusive approaches.
Findings position translanguaging as both educational strategy and means of political resistance against systemic exclusion.

Abstract

This study explores how Brazilian public-school educators use translanguaging as an inclusive pedagogical strategy to support Indigenous and refugee multilingual learners. Drawing on qualitative data from 53 educators across rural, semi-urban, and urban regions, the study examines how teachers reframe Portuguese not as a language of assimilation, but as a língua de acolhimento – a welcoming language that coexists with students’ home languages. Grounded in a critical translanguaging stance, it situates educators’ practices within broader struggles against monolingual policies, linguistic erasure, and systemic exclusion in Brazil’s education system. Findings reveal that educators engage in relational, contextually sensitive, and culturally grounded translanguaging practices that affirm students’ identities, integrate Indigenous traditions, and respond to the emotional and material needs of students facing displacement, poverty, and discrimination. However, limited infrastructure, lack of teacher training, and mandated monolingual curricula constrain inclusive pedagogy and place emotional burdens on teachers. By centring educators’ voices, this study highlights translanguaging as both pedagogy and political resistance, contributing to global discussions on multilingual education, Portuguese as a welcoming language, dignity, inclusion, and linguistic justice.

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