Indigenous people and Quilombolas in Higher Education: Analysis of access and permanence policies of public institutions for indigenous and Quilombola students

• Grant number: 23/10271-3
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Research in Public Policies
• Start date: March 01, 2025
• End date: February 28, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Anthropology
• Principal Investigator: José Maurício Paiva Andion Arruti
• Grantee: José Maurício Paiva Andion Arruti
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Chantal Victória Medaets
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/04238-9 - Indigenous and Quilombola Students in Higher Education - Analysis of Access and Retention Policies in Public Higher Education Institutions, BP.PD; 25/04275-1 - Paths and Challenges - the impact of Affirmative Actions for Indigenous and Quilombola People on University Political-Pedagogical Management, BP.PD; 25/04460-3 - Indigenous Presence in Higher Education: Trajectories of Kalapalo Students at UFG and UNEMAT., BP.MS

Abstract

Since the 2000s, and especially since 2012, with Federal Law 12,711/12, known as the Quota Law, selective Brazilian public universities began to receive more and more students who were traditionally excluded from them. If affirmative action (AA) programs aimed at low-income students and blacks stand out through reservation of places or bonuses, to promote access for indigenous peoples, quilombolas (and other traditional categories), a growing number of universities have organized a distinct selection process, directed exclusively at these candidates. The specificity of this public is also recognized in the differentiated treatment they receive in the Bolsa Permanência Program (federal), which grants them a scholarship in a higher amount than that of other low-income students.Despite their substantive cultural differences, these seem to have gone through processes of extermination, enslavement, forced displacement and symbolic cultural erasure, currently have converging legal status. The Brazilian State recognizes the right to the lands that they traditionally occupy and institutes a differentiated educational system, which must consider not only their historical difficulties in accessing education, at all levels, but also respect their traditional practices and knowledge. Based on this, many universities have built AA specifically aimed at them. The understanding of a researcher in the area is that the PPI (black, brown and indigenous) component of the Quota Law does not sufficiently serve indigenous people and quilombolas, because the forms of admission do not meet their singularities and there is no way to verify which and how many vacancies are effectively occupied by these segments.This project has, therefore, as its main focus, public policies in execution, insofar as it seeks to map and analyze the initiatives already adhered to by public universities, although still in the absence of a national guideline that regulates them beyond what the Law of quotas. But it also seeks to bring inputs for the evaluation and eventual remodeling of public programs that regulate admission to public Higher Education, such as the Unified Selection System (SiSU), which carries out a national selection based on ENEM results, and student assistance, such as the National Student Assistance Program (PNAES) and the Permanence Scholarship Program (PBP). These policies are under the responsibility of the Higher Education Secretariat (SESU), of the Ministry of Education, a partner institution of the project.The foreseen research procedures include: analysis of existing databases, creation of a database based on the reading of public notices from universities and production of qualitative data from ethnographies. I therefore hope to produce a detailed analysis of AA initiatives for indigenous and quilombola communities, mapping their scope and variety. The research data include quantitative data available at INEP and SESU, documentary data to be collected in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), and ethnographic data produced both on the experience and trajectories of indigenous and quilombola students, as well as on the effects of their presence in university structures and environments. The combinations of these elements will allow scientific advances in the global understanding of different aspects of the indigenous and quilombola presence in HEIs, which should inform the processes of evaluation and improvement of related public policies, making them more effective in combating inequalities. (AU)