Educational linguistic policies and the problem of the access paradox to literate practices and social inclusion: Interpretations under the light of applied linguistics

Abstract

In this essay I discuss the issue of educational public policies for social inclusion and of educational linguistic policies, and the issue of the accessibility paradox and social inclusion, because accessibility and inclusion alone may not promote equality between individuals and cultural diversity, but maintain and reproduce existing relations of domination. This happens because the access and the relation with social interactions mediated by secondary genres, dominant literacies and linguistic variety of prestige are, first of all, the interaction with practices and discourses of the dominant ideology, possibly representing another means for its maintenance. Based on the studies developed by the Bakhtin Circle, Paulo Freire, and Hilary Janks, I analyze how we can address this paradox at school through plurivalence and sign dialectic, and through a problematizing, critical education.