Banca de DEFESA: MARIA DO SOCORRO BERGERON LAGO

POLICY OF AFFIRMATIVE ACTIONS AND PROMOTION OF ETHNIC-RACIAL EQUALITY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF INDIGENOUS STUDENTS OF THE FEDERAL UNIVERSIty OF WEST OF PARÁ

Higher Education in the Amazon; Indigenous Students; Affirmative Action Policy at Ufopa.

Statements, topic under study. After five years of implementation, it was necessary to analyze the practical results or effectiveness of these actions, which is why the general objective of the study was: to verify the effectiveness of Affirmative Actions and the Promotion of Ethnic-racial Equality, from the perspective of indigenous students at the Federal University of the West of Pará (Ufopa). The research has an empirical/field exploratory basis, is bibliographic and documentary in nature and is epistemologically based on the postulations of Bobbio (2004); Lempert (2015); Oliven (2007); Santos (2012); Jodas (2019); Lira (2017); Tosi (2004); Colares and Colares (2012, 2019), which from various theoretical perspectives, deal with human and social rights and education through the lens of historical-dialectical materialism. Indigenous students entering the Special Indigenous Selection Process (PSEI), from 2011 to 2022, and Student Management employees participated. Documents (attachments) were sent to them requesting data about the indigenous students benefiting from the Policy. The data collection instrument was an online questionnaire (google forms) sent to students. The method was Historical-Dialectical Materialism, which allowed me to critically understand social relations under the capitalist mode of production, socio-educational, political and economic inequality, their common characteristics. In the analysis, I used triangulation as a technique, to verify the intersection between the perspectives of indigenous students and the Institution. The result of the analysis showed that in fact Ufopa's Affirmative Action Policy has positive and negative aspects. As positive aspects, indigenous students recognize that Ufopa has been developing actions that enable access and permanence, such as: student aid; the implementation of the University restaurant; and pedagogical support via CEANAMA. To overcome negative aspects, students suggest the need for actions that strengthen the policy to combat racism at the Institution; the need for bilingual teachers in their mother tongue; the training of employees (technicians and teachers) to deal with cultural/indigenous diversity; the increase in the number and value of the PBP/MEC permanence scholarship and student aid intended for indigenous students; the need to build daycare centers for the children of indigenous student mothers; housing for indigenous university students. The data collected and analyzed provide answers to the research's guiding question: how do indigenous students perceive the effectiveness of the Affirmative Action Policy and Promotion of Ethnic-racial Equality as a policy of inclusion and permanence at Ufopa? Ufopa, since its creation, has strived to implement its Affirmative Action Policy. To strengthen the Affirmative Action Policy, I present as a proposition, Ufopa needs to give and listen to the voices of the beneficiaries of this policy.