DIVERSITY, TEACHING AND LANGUAGE: WHAT CHALLENGES AND COMMITMENTS WILL THE CONTEMPORARY LANGUAGE PROFESSIONAL FACE?

In general, diversity can be conceptualized as the expression of opposites (BARROS, 2008). Despite the homogenization of several kinds and in the various areas promoted by the current process of globalization, the so-called ‘flat world’ will never be able to express the whole without considering the parts. In such a context of different ways of being in the world, language learning is a crucial condition for citizenship education, it is the key to get to know other people (BYRAM, 2006). Because of that, educational processes have been going through significant changes, fostering, among other things, postures aligned with the new world order, where the preparation of learners to able to exercise their rights at a global level and take advantage of mechanisms which guarantee their intercultural citizenship, has continually gaining ground. Linguistic education has been taking a similar path. In its scope, discourses and pedagogical practices which take into consideration the sociopolitical character of any educational process start to be required. In other words, it has been demanded an egalitarian linguistic education which, above all, struggles for diversity and is able to guarantee total inclusion, creating ample opportunities, especially for those learners who come from less privileged classes and historically marginalized groups. Having human diversity in the background, the article aims to discuss the role of the contemporary language teaching professional, highlighting the challenges and commitments which await them at different levels, and the central position this professional occupies at this crucial moment of the global society in which we fight for the historical, cultural and social (re)construction of our differences.