Ações afirmativas e povos indígenas no ensino superior: uma análise da dimensão social e simbólica da permanência de estudantes indígenas na Universidade Federal do Maranhão

Abstract

This research is part of the research line “History, Educational Policies and Human Training”, of the research group “Educational Policy, Management and Human Training” and aims to figure out higher education for indigenous peoples in Brazil and how this process has been occuring at the Federal University of Maranhão-UFMA. The configuration built in the Brazilian state and university field around higher education policies for indigenous peoples was established in multidimensional, global, and national relations in a society marked by the historical social hierarchy of races, ethnicities, and cultures. This study analayzes the affirmative action policy for indigenous peoples at this university, focusing on the social and symbolic dimension of the process of permanence of indigenous students in undergraduate courses. The epistemological dimension of this research included the theoretical basis of Bourdieu's perspective (1996) and his studies on the social field, habitus, and capitals, incorporating a constant dialogue with indigenous knowledge and research on the realities of indigenous higher education and the process of colonization in Brazil , such as the productions of Baniwa (2019), Krenak (2020), Munduruku (2016), Lima (2018), Lima and Barroso (2013), Brostolin and Cruz (2010), Coelho (2006), Oliveira (2018), Santos (2009), Santos and Meneses (2009), Souza (2013), among others. Student permanence in higher education as an element of the affirmative action policy, in an approach that integrates the material and the symbolic conditions of permanence, was based on the understanding of studies such as Alain Coulon's theory of affiliation (2008;2017), research such as Borges (2019), Santos (2009), Amaral (2012), Renault (2019), in a constant reflection on the specificity of the permanence of indigenous students as a group that wants to perform exchanges, dialogues, and changes in the university field, but to remain differentiated in its rationales, ways of seeing, knowing and feeling the world. The research is quantitative-qualitative. As a methodological procedure and instruments for data collection, bibliographic review techniques, survey techniques and document analysis, and semi-structured interviews with seven indigenous students were adopted. Reflection on UFMA within a university and state (ethnocentric) field makes it possible to perceive the various power relations, forces, and struggles between different social agents inside and outside the field. The research results indicate a discourse of marginalization regarding the access and retention of indigenous students at UFMA, still present to this day, as evidenced by the scant mentions of this issue in recent Institutional Development Plans. Statistical data on the access of indigenous students from 2007 to 2021 reveal low enrollment rates and high dropout rates. The experiences of the interviewed students signal encounters marked by more intense estrangement concerning the process of university affiliation, often postponed due to social, economic, symbolic limitations, and obstacles, as well as the structure of UFMA's subfield being more aligned with the legitimized capitals of a dominant fraction of the ruling classes in Brazilian society.