Cultural plurality at university: afro-Brazilian and indigenous heritages in curricular production

• Grant number: 24/15654-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: November 01, 2025
• End date: November 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Specific topics in Education
• Principal Investigator: Rosenilton Silva de Oliveira
• Grantee: Vitor Miranda Ciochetti
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Educação (FE). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Cultural diversity, enshrined as a value in the 1988 Constitution, has gained new dimensions in the educational arena with the implementation of different affirmative action policies over the past two decades. In this context, the general objective of this research is to investigate how Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous cultural practices are incorporated into formative processes developed in projects located in public universities, with an emphasis on state universities in São Paulo. The research is based on the premise that the implementation of these projects challenges university administration to embrace Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous civilizational values, leading to new curricular developments in which notions of "culture" emerge as a mark of epistemological difference in relation to the supposed "universal knowledge" that is embedded in university curricula. Through a literature review, document analysis, and ethnographic study of three extension projects developed at USP and Unicamp, the research will explore how African and Indigenous epistemologies and cultures are embraced through actions that impact teaching, research, and university extension, producing new ways of thinking about the curriculum in different areas of academic knowledge.