COVID-19 and multicultural education in Brazil

Abstract

The paper aims to discuss the effects of COVID-19 on the Brazilian educational scenario. It analyses educational directives in the pandemic times, gleaning possibilities and challenges for the curriculum in the different levels of schooling. The focus of the study is two-fold: it theoretically discusses the need for multicultural intersectional educational perspectives in culturally diverse countries and it analyses educational policies issued by the Brazilian National Council for Education at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting ways by which they could enhance a multicultural, intersectional perspective in their recommendations. Based on a multicultural perspective, the paper argues that the technical dimension that permeates educational directives, relevant though it may be, should arguably be accompanied by ideas that could enhance the students’ emotional, affectionate and cultural dimensions, in complex times as those lived by them and by all in the middle of a pandemic.

Keywords

• Educational policies
• Multicultural perspectives
• COVID-19
• Brazil
• Curriculum
• Cultural diversity