Brazil/Canada Research Exchange: Developing Transnational Literacy

Transnational literacies combine global consciousness with the development of competencies suitable for full participation in the knowledge society. They encompass the digital, multimodal, informational, and critical literacies associated with both traditional reading and writing skills and the range of new literacies required by evolving information technologies. We have selected transformational practices in the teaching of global English in universities and schools in Canada and Brazil as our key site of intervention.Both Brazil and Canada face challenges in their educational systems that we believe can be addressed through sharing best practices and research expertise. Global English, bilingualism, and multilingualism play different roles in each country, and the challenges they pose for the next generation are different. By working together, we hope to involve students, teachers and researchers in both countries in closer and more intensive trans-hemispheric exchange. (By: Prof Diana Brydon: Canada Research Chair in Globalization and Cultural Studies, English, Film and Theatre Department Centre for Globalization and Cultural Studies, University of Manitoba; Prof Lynn Mario de Souza: Professor, Letras, University of Sao Paul)