African-Brazilians and Natives in an Elite University: The Impact of Affirmative Action on Students in Brazil

Abstract

Abstract. The best Brazilian universities are public, free of charge, and highly selective. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, many public universities began to allocate places on all of their courses to underrepresented groups. The targets of these affirmative action policies were usually African-Brazilian and Native students coming from public schools. This article introduces data on Brazil's higher education system since its early beginnings: its expansion, the segmentation between public and private sectors, and the elitist character of its public universities. It points out the specificities of race relations in the country since the arrival of the Portuguese, and the historical context that favored the introduction of inclusion policies in public universities. It then deploys qualitative data in order to present the experiences of African-Brazilians and Natives who entered one elite university -the Federal University do Rio Grande do Sulthrough affirmative action policies. This university is located in the South of the country, in the region that has the highest percentage of white people amongst the general population. The analysis focuses on the educational trajectory, family support and expectations, race relations in the university, resilience processes, and one group of racial quota students' plans for the future. By reporting on this pioneering experience, the importance of diversity in the student body and the challenges the university has to tackle in order to face this new reality are highlighted. Keywords: university students, affirmative action, racial quotas, resilience, elite university, Brazilian higher education, diversity in the university. 10.17323/1814-9545-2016-2-259-285 Higher education developed late in Brazil. Unlike Spain, which in the sixteenth century created five universities in its American dominions, Portugal avoided the establishment of university courses in its over- DOI:

Experiências individuais, sociais e raciais com ações afirmativas nas universidades brasileiras: Revisão de escopo

“…Três dos artigos eram dos mesmos autores e apresentaram os mesmos dados de uma pesquisa primária, acrescentando novos dados e instrumentos de pesquisa para comparações (Francis & Tannuri-Pianto, 2012, 2013. Dois estudos têm as mesmas autoras, porém com dados diferentes em cada pesquisa (Oliven & Bello, 2016, sendo que uma dessas autoras publicou os mesmos dados primários com discussões diferentes em outro artigo (Bello, 2013). Dois estudos têm os mesmos autores, que apresentam dados de pesquisa da dissertação de mestrado de uma das autoras (Santos & Scopinho, 2015.…”

“…A transformação das representatividades no ambiente acadêmico traz consigo o sentimento de conquista individual, pois fazer parte da universidade transformou suas expectativas de vida (Oliven & Bello, 2016) e porque saem "totalmente transformados -para melhor, com toda certeza" (Silva & Silva, 2012, p. 538). Entretanto, o sucesso coletivo, racial e social é vivenciado como não sendo uma conquista somente do cotista, mas como consequência de lutas ancestrais de um povo ou grupo (Anhaia, 2017).…”

Mobilidade social e melhoria de vida de egressos cotistas das universidades federais brasileiras

“…Outra grande parte da literatura analisa os efeitos empíricos da política de ação afirmativa no ensino superior brasileiro, principalmente em termos de ampliação do acesso de estudantes negros, de baixa renda familiar e oriundos do ensino médio de escolas públicas às universidades públicas ERNICA, 2015;ARRIGONI, 2018;BARBOSA;PIRES;DWYER, 2018;BATISTA, 2018;BEZERRA;GURGEL, 2012;CARVALHO;WALTENBERG, 2015;CHILDS;STROMQUIST, 2015;CICALO, 2012;DEL REY;ESTEVAN, 2019;ECKER;TORRES, 2015;TANNURI-PIANTO, 2012a, 2012bGOLGHER, 2021;GRINER;SAMPAIO;SAMPAIO, 2015;GURURAJ et al, 2021;HENRIQUE;LACERDA, 2016;HERINGER, 2015HERINGER, , 2018HONORATO, 2015;KERN;ZILIOTTO, 2011;LLOYD, 2015LLOYD, , 2016MACHADO;MAGALDI, 2016;MELERO et al, 2018;MENDES JUNIOR;MELLO E SOUZA;WALTENBERG, 2016;NEVES, 2017;OLIVEN, 2015;B...…”