Education & Critical Thinking
We create learning environments where students and educators question dominant narratives, explore alternative perspectives and develop the tools to think independently.
Pluralism in practice.
PLURAL. is a non-profit organisation based in Porto, Portugal, working across heritage education, culture and critical thinking in Europe.
We design and implement projects that help people engage with multiple perspectives — in history, in technology, in society.
Culture & Heritage
We connect cultural heritage with contemporary challenges, understanding how memory, identity and tradition shape the way communities see themselves and each other.
European Cooperation
We work with partners across Europe to build projects funded through programmes such as Erasmus+ and Creative Europe, bringing diverse expertise and contexts into shared initiatives.
“In the end, we will conserve only what we love, we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.”
Mission.
PLURAL. promotes pluralism, critical dialogue and multi-perspectivity in heritage education, culture and society.
We believe that the ability to consider multiple viewpoints is not a luxury — it is a foundation for informed citizenship, meaningful learning and cultural understanding.
Why we exist
PLURAL. was founded in 2026 in Porto, Portugal, by two practitioners who had been working in European education and cultural cooperation for years, and saw the need for a structure dedicated to pluralism as a practice, not just a principle.
The organisation brings together operational and technological capacity with cultural and pedagogical depth, allowing us to bridge implementation and meaning in everything we do.
What that means in practice
We develop projects that bring different perspectives into contact: in classrooms, in cultural settings, in public life. Our work focuses on creating the conditions for people to engage with complexity rather than simplify it away.
This includes designing educational methodologies, producing pedagogical and cultural content, organising training and public events, and implementing national and international cooperation projects.
PLURAL. — Associação para o Pluralismo is a non-profit association registered in Porto, Portugal.
Team.
PLURAL. was founded by two people with distinct but deeply complementary paths: one rooted in cultural research and education, the other in engineering and organisational strategy. Both shaped by lives lived across countries, languages and disciplines. Together, they bring the kind of perspective the organisation’s name asks for.
Bruna Souza
Co-founder & President
Originally from Brazil, Bruna came to Europe to study and work on the questions that matter most to her: how knowledge is shaped, who gets to tell which stories, and what happens when heritage meets the present.
With a background in International Relations and Art History & Visual Culture, she has spent years working inside European cooperation projects — not from the outside looking in, but as someone who researches, designs learning approaches and coordinates the people involved.
She is also an educator and mediator, comfortable translating academic ideas into experiences that resonate with diverse audiences. Whether in a classroom, a museum or a cross-border project team, her focus is the same: making complex subjects accessible without flattening them.
At PLURAL., Bruna shapes what we work on and why: leading research, defining educational frameworks and ensuring that every project stays grounded in the questions that gave it purpose.
Nathalie Saikali
Co-founder & Treasurer
Belgian-Lebanese, Nathalie trained as an engineer and has spent her career learning how to make things work — not just technically, but for the people who use them.
Her path moved from Biomedical Engineering through a management programme at the University of Cambridge and into years of professional experience in digital and AI-driven companies, translating between technical teams and the people they build for, structuring processes, and turning abstract ideas into things that function in practice.
What runs through all of it is a focus on communication and clarity: understanding what people actually need, and finding the simplest way to deliver it.
At PLURAL., Nathalie brings that same approach to how the organisation operates: structuring projects, enabling collaboration across disciplines, and leading the integration of technology, including AI, into the work we do.
Experience.
PLURAL. was founded in 2026. The work behind it, however, started years earlier.
Before creating the organisation, our founders contributed to European cooperation projects that directly shaped PLURAL.’s approach and areas of focus.
HUP aims to reconnect European youth with their cultural heritage through innovative youth-led hackathons, enhancing cultural literacy, critical thinking and civic participation.
The project brings heritage experts and young people together to brainstorm new ways to engage youth with cultural heritage. Through a design-driven, one-day immersive experience, participants visualise, build and share their ideas, fostering an emotional connection between youth and heritage.
Results include a joint research report, a hackathon toolkit, a policy brief with recommendations for policymakers, museum staff training, a playbook for youth workers, and a MOOC to share the methodology and best practices.
Partners
Designathon Works Foundation (NL), EduQuest (GR), Razvojna Agencija Kozjansko (SI), Change of Course (BE), Fundação EDP (PT), Stad Kortrijk – ABBY (BE), Stichting Het Nieuwe Instituut (NL)
Role
Project development, research and coordination.
Untold Stories explores how history education can be enriched through critical engagement with AI and multiple perspectives. The project was built on a simple but powerful idea: in a plural world, we need to learn how to read history, and now AI, with critical awareness.
Through the project, students explore history beyond a single narrative, use AI to surface alternative perspectives and question dominant ones, and reflect on how authority is constructed and challenged in both history and technology.
Partners
Merletcollege (NL), Change of Course (BE), Sint-Lievenscollege (BE), Junior High School of Lefkonas (GR)
Role
Project development, educational methodology design, research and coordination.
Fruitful Synergy explored how transition design can be applied to heritage work, using participatory design methods to identify how traditional practices such as fruit growing, pruning and grafting carry embodied ecological wisdom that can inspire solutions to today’s environmental challenges.
The project resulted in the publication “From Tradition to Transition: A Practical Playbook,” offering templates and step-by-step guides for applying this approach in local communities.
Partners
POMKO, Centrum Agrarische Geschiedenis (CAG), Cooperation DOON U.A., Joos Van Cauwenberghe
Role
Research, content development and contribution to the published playbook.
Get in touch
We are open to collaboration, partnership enquiries and conversations about shared projects.
Location
Porto, Portugal