Language, Culture and Curriculum

Critical perspectives on plurilingualism-driven curricular changes across formal and informal educational settings

Studies in the domain of plurilingual policies and pedagogies have been showcasing the affective and cognitive added-value of plurilingual teaching and learning practices around an increasing number of national and educational contexts, from kindergarten to higher education (Rojas & Chandras, 2025). Yet, a growing body of literature also reveals significant tensions. Empirical studies highlight teachers’ ambivalence toward the adoption of plurilingual practices in teaching and assessment, while also underscoring the challenges faced by individuals and institutions in developing new teacher education programs and implementing plurilingual policies and regulations (Anthony et al, 2026; Lange et al., 2025; Paquet & Woll, 2025; Simoes Loureiro & Hadjar, 2025). Furthermore, research underscores the challenges faced by individuals and institutions in implementing plurilingual policies and regulations (Duarte, 2022). Such challenges might reflect a perception of plurilingual policies and practices in education as a new normative dogma and lead to policies and practices that are more performative than critically and contextually enacted (Ndlangamandla et al., 2025). The change introduced by plurilingual policies should not render plurilingualism a normative dogma, but rather a flexible, equity-oriented pedagogical orientation that should favour interactions or even transitions from formal to non-formal learning spaces.

In this special issue, we respond to these challenges by moving beyond discourses of appraisal of policies and practices promoting plurilingualism and their curricular implementation, where positive outcomes are often taken for granted. Instead, we embrace a critical perspective around the design, implementation, and evaluation of such practices in situated and historicized educational contexts across global settings. By showing, in different contexts and in different depth, the need to articulate perspectives and spaces of transitions, the different contributions gathered in this special issue will underscore the added value of conceiving plurilingual education and plurilingual curriculum at the crossroads of different ideologies, forces and mandates, individuals and institutions. We invite contributions that critically examine the design, implementation, and evaluation of plurilingual curricular changes across formal and informal educational settings (including museums, community spaces, and family contexts), as well as across teachers' and learners' professional educational cultures, different educational levels, and heritage and foreign language education.