The school curriculum and the teaching activity considering the challenges of multiculturalism in Portugal

Abstract

The article reviews the reality of the Portuguese Educational System with regard to multiculturality. It describes a panoramic history of the process of attention to groups of immigrants in Portugal. It denounces the fact that this phenomenon was ignored until recently in the educational policy agendas. It states that the curriculum, depending on how it is selected and developed, is either an important tool for inclusion and justice, or the complete opposite. It describes the essential implications of making an educational and curricular policy to attend to the phenomenon of multiculturality. It defends the importance of a contra-hegemonic curriculum for achieving curricular justice. Its demonstrates and argues the most relevant implications of the phenomenon with regard to training teachers. It concludes by defending democratic citizen education in a multicultural society, and it argues that diversity is an engine for change and progress that must be properly taken care of.