Affirmative writing: creative strategies to subverting the coloniality in trajectories of academic literacy

Author(s)

Luanda Rejane Soares Sito

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Campinas, SP.
• Institution: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
• Defense date: 2016-04-03

Examining board members

Angela Kleiman; Terezinha de Jesus Machado Maher; Claudia Lemos Vóvio; José Jorge de Carvalho; Vera Regina Rodrigues da Silva

• Advisor: Angela Kleiman

Abstract

This research aims to understand how students of humanity courses, who entered public universities (one in Brazil another in Colombia) by affirmative action policies, deal with the literacy practices demands required at the university, through the description and analysis of literacy trajectories and the development of their undergraduate thesis. In Latin America, the twenty-first century began with the demand and the implementation of affirmative action policies in higher education in order to foment the university opening its doors to students from groups historically marginalized, both physically and culturally, from the academic space. However, the policy caused controversy: while for some sectors of society, students who entered university through affirmative action programs would not be able to meet academic requirements (the deficit theory perspective); for others, on the contrary, these students would not only have success in their training but they would also be able to break the hegemonic discourses and to propose new forms of knowledge production (in an intercultural perspective). By observing experiences of affirmative action in Latin America, it is possible to note similarities between Brazil and Colombia in their affirmative actions for higher education and in the pressure experienced by students who entered the university through these actions (pressures related to their ethnic and racial identity). With the objective of in learning about these trajectories, and taking the university as a contact zone (CANAGARAJAH, 1997), this thesis is aligned with New Literacy Studies (HEATH, 1982; STREET, 1993; KLEIMAN, 1995; ZAVALA; NIÑO-MURCIA; AMES, 2004), especially the Literacy Academic Studies, developed in the field of Applied Linguistics. Linked to the Letramento do Professor research group, this research consists of a qualitative study whose corpus is composed of interviews with students and professor, the final graduation essay produced by the students, as well as government documents related to the affirmative action policy on both institutions. The research focuses on four young students¿ trajectories ¿ two from each country, from two institutions from regions where there is a whiteness imaginary that characterizes the local population (Southern Brazil and the Andean region of Colombia). The results of this investigation point out that students employ creative strategies to subvert power relations and the coloniality of knowledge. The analysis of their final papers ¿ considered a practice of writing in the contact zone ¿ demonstrates that their works give visibility to demands and questions motivated by the experiences as members of minority ethnic and racial groups and their struggles to learn or transform university institutional practices ( ways of doing and ways of saying). In parallel, the analysis of their academic literacy trajectories shows that the university students not only question the affirmative policies, but also point to new horizons for creating a more symmetrical dialogue for the production of knowledge through such strategies as autoethnography, transculturation, critique, collaboration, bilingualism, mediation, denunciation, vernacular expressions, alternative proposals and imaginary reconstruction. As we approach the reparation policy experiences, this thesis aims to contribute, from the Academic Literacy Studies perspective, both to teacher education programs at university level and to the discussion and development of intercultural and affirmative policies for populations who have been victims of racism in the Latin American context (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 12/01311-7 - Affirmative action writing policies: a study of the strategies of minority college students to deal with academic literacy practices
• Grantee: Luanda Rejane Soares Sito
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate