Research
Projects

Coordinator: José Maurício Arruti

Funding agency: FAPESP

Abstract: Since the 2000s, and particularly from 2012 onwards, with Federal Law 12.711/12, known as the Quota Law, selective Brazilian public universities have increasingly welcomed students who were traditionally excluded from them. While affirmative action (AA) programmes aimed at low-income and black students are implemented through reserved places or bonus points, to promote the access of Indigenous peoples and Quilombola communities (and other traditional populations), a growing number of universities have organised a distinct selection process, exclusively aimed at these candidates. The specificity of this public is also recognised in the differentiated treatment they receive in the (Federal) Retention Grant Programme, which awards them a higher grant than other low-income students. Despite their substantive cultural differences, these populations, which have undergone analogous processes of extermination, enslavement, forced displacement and cultural erasure, currently possess converging legal statuses. The Brazilian State recognises their right to the lands they traditionally occupy and establishes a differentiated educational system, which must consider not only their historical difficulties in accessing education at all levels, but also value their traditional practices and knowledge. Based on this, many universities have developed AA specifically aimed at them. Researchers in the field understand that the PPI (black, mixed-race, and Indigenous) component of the Quota Law does not adequately cater to Indigenous and Quilombola communities, because the entry methods do not address their unique characteristics and there is no way to verify which and how many places are effectively occupied by these segments. This project, therefore, primarily focuses on public policies in implementation, as it seeks to map and analyse the initiatives already developed by public universities, albeit in the absence of a national guideline that regulates them beyond what the Quota Law does. However, it also seeks to provide input for the evaluation and potential remodelling of public programmes that regulate entry into public Higher Education, such as the Unified Selection System (SiSU), which conducts a national selection based on ENEM results, and student assistance policies, such as the National Student Assistance Programme (PNAES) and the Retention Grant Programme (PBP). These policies fall under the responsibility of the Higher Education Secretariat (SESU), of the Ministry of Education, a partner institution of the project. The planned research procedures include: analysis of existing databases, creation of a database from the reading of university notices, and production of qualitative data from ethnographies. We thus hope to produce a detailed analysis of AA initiatives for Indigenous and Quilombola communities, mapping their extent and variety. The research data includes quantitative data available from INEP and SESU, documentary data to be collected from Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), and ethnographic data produced both on the experience and trajectories of Indigenous and Quilombola students, and on the effects of their presence on university structures and environments. The combination of these elements will allow scientific advances in the global understanding of different aspects of Indigenous and Quilombola presence in HEIs, which should inform the evaluation and improvement processes of related public policies, making them more effective in combating inequalities.