Studies on the process of teaching and learning of languages in the Pre-school and Primary School have been of particular importance in the Portuguese educational context. In fact, the teaching of languages is powered by the various educational community policies, since it is believed that the educational scenario of language teaching is a privileged space to promote linguistic and cultural diversity which shapes the European Union. In this context, the learners' mother tongue is assumed to be particularly relevant to enhance the learning of (other) European languages.
In recent years, there has been a breakthrough as regards the knowledge and practices related to the teaching and learning of languages in the Pre-school and Primary School. This advance was largely due to the introduction of the teaching of English as a Foreign Language in Primary Schools through the publication of Despacho n.º 14 753/05 (2ª série), 5th July, which approves the programme of instruction of English at this level of education, as well as the regulations that define the system of access to financing.
Subsequently, the introduction of English in Primary Schools has led educators, teachers, researchers and other education professionals to reflect upon the importance of languages, the training of learners and, especially, its role in creating future citizens aware and active in their increasingly globalized society which surrounds them.
The collection of texts we present represent the need that we as teachers and researchers have in describing some ideas that advocate the early teaching of languages. We also want that this publication promotes the sharing of views and experiences, creating a space for future reflections upon this topic. This Caderno de Estudos is a publication which makes part of the activities promoted by the Unit for Languages and Cultures of Escola Superior de Educação de Paula Frassinetti.
We could not forget to acknowledge the effort of teachers and researchers who participated vigorously in the preparation of this publication, enthusiastically contributing to studies which will certainly enrich the collection of investigative teaching of languages in pre-school and primary school.

Mário Cruz | Paula Medeiros

While celebrating 45 years of existence, the Escola Superior de Educação de Paula Frassinetti, as an institution of values, knowledge and practices, questioned and tested during the VI Encontro Luso-Brasileiro, which took place in October 2008, social and educational responses, which on the one hand articulate and integrate unity and human diversity in a globalized world; and, on the other hand, a new learning culture based on autonomy, cooperation and solidarity.
Experts from Dorothean institutions in Portugal (College of Education For more information visit) and Brazil (Faculty of Philosophy of Recife) tried to answer some of the following guiding questions:
• On what grounds can we build an educational relationship which takes into account the heterogeneity and complexity of people owner of cultures?
• To what extent new knowledge and practices draw educational processes respectful of human diversity?
• How to harmonize educational intervention and promote dialogue between different people with dynamics of inclusion?

José Luís Gonçalves

The papers in this Caderno de Estudos were born on the structuring of a graduate course in supervision which Prof. Laureano Silveira led: the cultural dimension of Supervisor (and supervision). Analyzed from different angles and understood by many approaches to the problems of the relationship between culture and education, the cultural dimension is seen here in its broadest anthropological sense, education for human development, freedom and citizenship, sustained epistemological and methodologically by the pedagogical supervision, as the theory and practice contributes to the construction of a vocational education, designed and built with complexity and a systematical thinking among education professionals and school organizations, in which they work and where they help build educational projects that are real cultural projects.
The cultural dimension, which results from the conception of a special supervisor, who was not and could not be conceived and designed to enhance the culture of the recipients in objectifying meaning and content of the question. On the contrary, as discussed in this book dedicated to supervision, we will contribute to an awareness of its importance in shaping the self in imaginative and creative ways and also lead to understand that culture is not confined to one or more curriculum contents, but relies on the experience and engagement with and through people, works, ways of thinking, acting and feeling live dialogues ... In short, openness to others and curiosity about the world and life.

Daniela Gonçalves