The study aims to critically analyse contradictions, limits and potentials of the "Cultural Plurality" discourse within the Parâmetros Curriculares Nacionais [National Curricular Guidelines], 3th and 4th blocks. Itseeks to pinpoint the extent to which that discourse is imbued by a perspective of valuing cultural diversity and challenging stereotypes. Firstly, it discusses different approaches in multicultural education, focusing on the concepts of "national identity" and "plural identities" in each of them. At the light of that conceptual framework, it then critically analyses the above mentioned curricular guidelines. It argues that, in order to advance an intercultural approach in curricular guidelines, more efforts of deconstructing and reconstructing concepts related to it should be undertaken, so as to help building a multicultural and participant citizenship in plural societies.