Equity and higher education: the role of mathematics education about affirmative actions for minority groups

• Grant number: 15/04698-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: September 01, 2015
• End date: January 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Educational Teaching and Learning
• Principal Investigator: Ole Skovsmose
• Grantee: Guilherme Henrique Gomes da Silva
• Supervisor: Arthur B. Powell
• Host Institution: Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas (IGCE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Rio Claro. Rio Claro , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Rutgers The State University of New Jersey, Newark, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 14/05584-3 - Equity in access to higher education: the role of Mathematics Education in face of affirmative actions for underrepresented groups, BP.DR

Abstract

The project of carrying out an internship abroad is part of an ongoing PhD research which aims to discuss affirmative action policies with reference to Mathematics education, identifying not only educational challenges in general, but also issues related to Mathematics education originated from such policies. The main objective is to reflect on pedagogical activities in Brazilian federal universities that could contribute to the permanence and progress of students benefited from affirmative action policies from Exact Sciences courses. As part of this research, I am going to hold a PhD internship at Rutgers University in Newark, United States. This is one of the main universities from New Jersey State and it has a wide diversity in its student body, speaking of racial and social terms. In addition, the United States was one of the first countries to institutionalize affirmative policies for minority group's access in higher education in the mid-1960s. In this respect, my goal with this internship is a deeper understanding of these policies in the American context, in addition to interviewing teachers and students from Exact Sciences at Rutgers University to identify key strategies that contributed to the permanence of minority group's students in these courses. Besides, this internship will contribute with data analysis already collected in Brazil, allowing new ideas and possibilities of development of this subject. (AU)