Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Ambition with Resistance: Affirmative Action in Brazil’s Public Universities

  • Chapter
Race, Politics, and Education in Brazil

Abstract

Most scholars of higher education agree that Brazil has the most ambitious affirmative action policies of any country in the world. News is spreading that Brazil’s federal quota policies for affirmative action in undergraduate education, which reserve half of all seats in all courses of study at federal universities for students from Brazil’s infamously poor, and poor-serving, public high schools, are not only hugely ambitious but, as research is beginning to show, hugely effective. However, the country is not moving in a monolithic way toward greater equity in access to higher education. When one looks beyond the federal university policies, the picture becomes much more complicated. First, only 26 percent of all students in higher education in Brazil studied at public universities in 2013, while 74 percent studied in private universities, both nonprofit and for-profit. Of those in public universities, 59 percent are at federal universities, 31 percent at state universities, and 10 percent at municipal universities. Placed in the overall context of Brazilian higher education, this means that only 15.5 percent of all students study at federal universities, which is the only sector with a comprehensive affirmative action law. Therefore, the world’s most ambitious affirmative action policy applies to only a small percentage of all undergraduate students in higher education in Brazil (INEP/MEC 2013).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Arum, Richard. 2014. Quotation from lecture at New York University, New York. November 3, 2014.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell, Derrick. 1980. Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Convergence Dilemma. Harvard Law Review (93): 518–534.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bevins, Vincent. 2014. The Worst Thing about Brazil / O Pior Aspecto do Brasil, Folha de São Paulo, http://frombrazil.blogfolha.uol.com.br.br/2014/08/11/the-worst-thing-about-brazil (accessed November 5, 2014).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bilden, Rüdiger. 1929. Brazil, Laboratory of Civilization. The Nation 128 (3315): 71–74.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, Pierre and Jean-Claude Passeron. 1977. Reproduction in Education, Society and Culture. New York: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carnoy, Martin, Prashant Loyalka, Maria Dobryakova, Rafq Dossani, Isak Froumin, Katherine Kuhns, Jandhyala B.G. Tilak, and Rong Wang. 2013. University Expansion in a Changing Global Economy: Triumph of the BRICs? Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • De Andrade, Cibele Yahn. 2012. Acesso ao ensino superior no Brasil: Equidade e desigualdade social, Ensino Superior Unicamp. Accessed October 20, 2014. http://www.revistaensinosuperior.gr.unicamp.br/edicoes-anteriores/2012–07–24%2000:00:00.

  • The Economist. 2013. Affrmative Action in Brazil: Slavery’s Legacy. Accessed October 1, 2014. http://www.economist.com/blogs/americasview/2013/04/affrmative-action-brazil.

  • Feres Júnior, João, Verônica Dafon, Eduardo Barbarela, and Pedro Ramos. 2013. Levantamento das políticas de ação afrmativa nas universidades estaduais, IESP-UERJ. 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grego, Sonia. 2014. Social Inclusion Policies at UNESP 1997–2010: Advances and Challenges. Powerpoint presentation, São Paulo. August 7. Author has possession of a copy of this presentation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guimarães, Antônio Sérgio. 2004. “Racial Democracy,” in Imagining Brazil, ed. Jesse Souza and Valter Sinder. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guimarães, Antônio Sérgio. 2007. After Racial Democracy. Tempo social. 18(2): 269–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • INEP/MEC, Censo da Educação Superior (Census of Higher Education). 2013. Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais, Ministério da Educação (National Institute of Educational Studies and Research, Ministry of Education). Accessed September 15, 2014. http://download.inep.gov.br.br/educacao_superior/censo_superior/apresentacao/2014/coletiva_censo_superior_2013.pdf.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, Laura Dudley and Michele Moses. 2014. Affrmative Action Initiatives around the World, International Higher Education 77: 5–6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson III, Ollie A. 2008. “Afro-Brazilian Politics: White Supremacy, Black Struggle and Affrmative Action,” in Democratic Brazil Revisited, ed. Peter Kingstone and Timothy Power, 209–230. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kennedy, Randall. 2010. The Enduring Relevance of Affrmative Action. The American Prospect, http://prospect.org/article/enduring-relevance-affrmative-action-0 (accessed October 21, 2014).

  • Kennedy, Randall. 2013. For Discrimination: Race, Affrmative Action and the Law. New York: Pantheon Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loss, Christopher. 2012. Between Citizens and the State: The Politics of American Higher Education in the Twentieth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Medeiros, Carlos Alberto. 2013. “Brasil, Estados Unidos e a questão racial: A fertilidade de um campo cheio de armadilhas,” Ação Afrmativa em Questão, ed. Angela Paiva, 240–265. Rio de Janeiro: Pallas Editora.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, Heinz-Deiter, Edward P. St. John, and Maia Chankseliani eds. 2013. Fairness in Access to Higher Education in a Global Perspective: Reconciling Excellence, Effciency, and, Justice. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moses, Michele S. 2010. “Moral and Instrumental Rationales for Affrmative Action in Five National Contexts” Educational Researcher (39): 211.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moses, Michele S. and Chang, Mitchell. 2006. Toward a Deeper Understanding of the Diversity Rationale. Educational Researcher 3 (1): 6–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pallares-Burke, Marcia Lucia Garcia. 2012. O triunfo do fracasso: Rüdiger Bilden, o amigo esquecido de Gilberto Freyre. São Paulo: Editora UNESP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pazich, Loni and Robert Teranishi. 2014. Comparing Access to Higher Education in Brazil and India Using Critical Race Theory. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning 16 (1): 50–69.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pedrosa, R. H. L., J. N. W. Dachs, R. P. Maia, C. Y. Andrade, B. S. Carvalho. 2007. Academic Performance, Students’ Background and Affrma-tive Action at a Brazilian University. Higher Education Management and Policy 19 (3): 1–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pedrosa, Renato H. L., Tania P. Simões, Ana M. Carneiro, Cibele Y. Andrade, Helena Sampaio, and Marcelo Knobel. 2014. Access to Higher Education in Brazil. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning 16 (1): 5–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • PROUNI/MEC (2014). Accessed January 14, 2015. http://prouniportal.mec.gov.br.br/images/arquivos/pdf/Representacoes_graficas/bolsas_ofertadas_ano.pdf.

  • Shavit, Yossi, Richard Arum, and Adam Gamoran. 2007. Stratifcation in Higher Education. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stevens, Mitchell L. 2009. Creating a Class: College Admissions and the Education of Elites. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Synnott, Marcia G. 2005. The Evolving Diversity Rationale in University Admissions: From Regents v. Bakke to the University of Michigan Cases. Cornell Law Review (90): 463–504.

    Google Scholar 

  • Telles, Edward. 2004. Race in Another America: the Signifcance of Skin Color in Brazil. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Telles, Edward and Marcelo Paixão. 2013. Affrmative Action in Brazil. LASA Forum, 44 (2): 10–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thelin, John R. 2011. A History of American Higher Education. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Veblen, Thorstein. 1899. The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waltenberg, Fábio and Márcia de Carvalho. 2013. Cotas Aumentam e diver-sidade dos estudantes sem comprometer o desempenho? Centro de Estudos Sobre Desigualdade e Desenvolvimento, Texto para discussão, No. 73. Accessed October 15, 2014. http://www.proac.uff.br/cede/sites/default/fles/TD73.pdf.

  • Warikoo, Natasha and Christina Fuhr. 2014. Legitimating status: perceptions of meritocracy and inequality among undergraduates at an elite British university. British Educational Research Journal 40 (4): 699–717.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Erich Dietrich
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Ollie A. Johnson III Rosana Heringer

Copyright information

© 2015 Ollie A. Johnson III and Rosana Heringer

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Dietrich, E. (2015). Ambition with Resistance: Affirmative Action in Brazil’s Public Universities. In: Johnson, O.A., Heringer, R. (eds) Race, Politics, and Education in Brazil. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137485151_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation