Critical language teaching in a dynamic language policy terrain: lessons from the Brazilian Science without Borders student mobility programme

Based on a larger ethnographic study following the experiences of several undergraduate members of one cohort of Brazil’s Science without Borders programme for students in science and technological fields, this article describes how several language teachers engaged with the power relations of the frequently shifting policy terrain of the programme.

It concludes with a discussion of possibilities for teachers in similar situations who endeavour to take a critical approach to language teaching and explores some of the tactics they might employ against those policies which they see as incompatible with their practices.