Affirmative Action in Post-Secondary Education: Contrasting Approaches in Brazil and Canada

Michelli Aparecida Daros,Diandra Singh

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3387895

Abstract

This paper compares and contrasts approaches to affirmative action that are intended to increase access to post-secondary institutions to students racialized as Black and Indigenous in Brazil and Canada, respectively. Both of these demographics are underrepresented in post-secondary institutions in these countries, as a result of the legacy of colonization and systemic racism within these nations. To explore various approaches to affirmative action a comparison of several documents are made including: the Brazilian Federal Law 11.645/ 2008, which obliges the addition of the History and Culture of Afro-Brazilians and Indigenous people to the national curriculum; the Brazilian Federal Law 12.711/2012, which supports access to federal universities and other federal educational institutions through quotas (best known as the Quotasâ€™ Law); and the Truth and Reconciliation Final Summary Report (2015), which provides 94 calls to action for the Canadian government to redress the issues created by the residential school system. Through document analysis, a list of affirmative actions is compiled, followed by an analysis of their implementation. Moreover, data related to racialized students who have benefited from these approaches, highlight the importance of affirmative actions to build more inclusive democratic systems.

Highlights

Affirmative action is a controversial topic around the world (Sowell 2004)
We depart from this view of affirmative action as we believe it encompasses the 4 points mentioned above and we believe that affirmative action is not the root cause of animosity between racialized groups – in the contexts of Canada and Brazil, we believe that the root cause is colonization
After analyzing the 94 calls to action and determining which calls were relevant to post-secondary education, we found that these calls could be categorized based on 4 main affirmative action approaches: 1) to create a strategy for equitable access to education; 2) to collect data on FNIM and to release findings to the public; 3) to provide funding to support various FNIM initiatives related to education; and 4) to include culturally appropriate curricula

Summary

Introduction

Affirmative action is a controversial topic around the world (Sowell 2004). It entails providing preferential treatment to a specific group (usually a minority group) to bolster their opportunities in various aspects of life (e.g. education and employment). The controversy surrounding affirmative action stems from the belief that those who do not receive affirmative action are being discriminated against and it has even been argued that these programs have a global legacy of being unsuccessful and even detrimental to society (Sowell 2004). We depart from this view of affirmative action as we believe it encompasses the 4 points mentioned above and we believe that affirmative action is not the root cause of animosity between racialized groups – in the contexts of Canada and Brazil, we believe that the root cause is colonization

Results

Discussion

Conclusion