Affirmative Actions as an Instrument to Balance Access to Superior Education in Brazil: The Quotas Policy

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 chapter discusses the concept of adult education and the role of higher education in Brazil’s current national policies and national ten-year educational strategic plan. Brazilian adult education is associated with a compensatory, remedial perspective, mainly geared towards those who have failed to acquire basic literacy and numeracy skills. The role of higher education has been perceived in terms of increasing the admission of students through affirmative actions and night courses, as well as developing partnerships with local educational authorities in order to train teachers and support the development of local adult education curricula. Finally, the chapter argues that Freire’s (1987) concept of oppressed groups is central to adult education in Brazil and key to a multicultural framework that views adults as multiple and complex plural identities with lifelong learning needs and potentials. It illustrates the role of higher education institutions in fostering regional curricular initiatives in adult education from a citizenship-oriented perspective (Nesbit et al., 2007).

Affirmative actions reflect the ideal of achieving equal opportunities and represent the realization of cultural transformations in order to reduce the effects of historically accumulated inequalities. Such actions are capableof implementing greater representation of minority groups in the most diverse domains of public and private activity. In the case of quotas instituted to guarantee minority access to higher education, the reservation of places is one of the forms of social justice that tries to guarantee a minimum level of education for the most disadvantaged, trying to compensate and equalize the opportunities for access to education. This research aimed to analyze the perception of students in the ISECENSA Law course about the affirmative action policy, with an emphasis on the quota modality that promotes the legal reserve of places for the so-called “minorities”. Therefore, the methodology used was qualiquantitative and had as its starting point the bibliographical review to situate the quota policy as an object in the field of socio-legal studies. Documentary analysis of laws on the subject was carried out, as well as field research, through which the questionnaire was used as a data collection instrument to verify the position of ISECENSA law students on the quota policy and to identify whether the students understand the meaning of the quota policy. Thus, 115 questionnaires were applied to students from the 1st to the 5th period of the Isecensa Law course and the data collected showed the students' concern with Social Justice, even with the initial lack of knowledge about the concept of “affirmative action”. In this way, it was possible to analyze the perception of law students at ISECENSA regarding the quota policy and also to promote awareness of the reasons and effects of the implementation of that policy. It is expected then, to contribute to the humanization of educational institutions by encouraging diversity in order to build a society that respects difference, seeking to achieve peace and equality

Affirmative actions reflect the ideal of achieving equal opportunities and represent the realization of cultural transformations in order to reduce the effects of historically accumulated inequalities. Such actions are capable of implementing a greater representation of minority groups in the most diverse domains of public and private activity. In the case of quotas instituted to guarantee minority access to higher education, the reservation of vacancies is one of the forms of social justice that tries to guarantee a minimum level of education to the most disadvantaged, trying to compensate and equate the opportunities of access to education. This research aims to analyze the perception of students of the ISECENSA Law course about the affirmative action policy, with emphasis on the quota modality that promotes the legal reserve of places for the so-called “minorities”. To this end, the methodology used will be qualitative and will have the bibliographic review as the starting point to place the quota policy as an object of the field of socio-legal studies. Documentary analysis of laws dealing with the theme will be carried out, as well as field research, through which the questionnaire will be used as a data collection instrument to verify the position of ISECENSA law students on the quota policy and to identify whether students understand the meaning of the quota policy. The expected results of the present research consist in the achievement of goals that focus on the contribution in the debates about the quotas policy in the educational environment from the ISECENSA experience and to the search for elements that can help in the adoption of strategies capable of making the law of more understandable quotas for society, generating awareness of the reasons and effects of its implementation. Thus, with the realization of the research, it is expected to analyze the perception of ISECENSA law students about the quota policy and, further, to raise awareness of the reasons and effects of the implementation of that policy, contributing to the humanization of educational institutions at starting from the incentive to diversity in order to build a society that respects difference, seeking the achievement of peace and equality.

1. Blacks in National Politics Ollie A. Johnson III 2. From the Black Movement's Struggle to the Teaching of African and Afro-Brazilian History Amilcar Pereira 3. Equal Opportunity Policy in Brazil: Black Activism and the State Vera Lucia Benedito 4. Affirmative Action from the Perspective of International Human Rights: Challenges and Possibilities from the Brazilian Experience Flavia Piovesan 5. Affirmative Action and the Expansion of Higher Education Rosana Heringer 6. Support for Affirmative Action among Afro-Brazilians Gladys Mitchell-Walthour 7. Ambition with Resistance: Affirmative Action in Brazil's Public Universities Erich Dietrich 8. Affirmative Action in Brazil: Achievements and Challenges Joao Feres Junior, Veronica Toste, and Luiz Augusto Campos 9. The Defeat of Quotas in the Passage of the Racial Equality Statute Sales Augusto dos Santos, Dora Bertulio, and Joao Vitor Moreno

Higher education in Brazil dates back to the early 20th century, yet in the past, certain social groups were rarely represented in the student body. In recent times, there has been considerable expansion on several fronts, bringing in groups that had been largely excluded from university education in earlier periods. From the 2000s to the present, university expansion has wrought significant qualitative change. Social movements have made successful demands for affirmative action policies, and macro-level policies, based on criteria such as public school background, family income, and race/ethnicity, have been put into effect.Our analysis of the expansion and diversification of public higher education scrutinizes current macro policies that support affirmative action for Indigenous, Black, and marginalized students and examines how these policies affect the composition of student bodies, based on data from national research institutions. An overall goal is to reflect upon methods for promoting democratic transformation of higher education, geared toward diversification and equity and blending macro and micro policies at the legislative and university levels. We work with a largely macro perspective focused on the strengths and weaknesses of efforts to democratize higher education in Brazil during the decade of the 2000s.

Nowadays, the crucial dilemma of Brazilian Higher Education is the task of to broaden access of a major part of population which is concluding secondary studies for the first time in history. The National Plan of Education (PNE, 2001)establish as a goal to increase Higher Education fees to 30% in the 18-24 years of age until 2010. The enlargement of these fees has been sustained by private enterprise, in despite of the Lula da Silva government investments in the federal institutions. The trends of the public policies consecrate to broaden access of population to Higher Education, based in measures as the University for All Program (PROUNI) and the educational credit implementation, denote the present configuration of Brazilian Higher Education system – marked for private enterprise hegemony in vacancy supply – drives to became solid, once it complies with the increase of the access as maintains the vacancy supply structure in this sector. Keywords: Higher Education policy; access; affirmative action; PROUNI.

Affirmative Action and Higher Education in Brazil

New multicultural regimes now characterize much of Latin America, creating opportunities for ethno-racial populations to fight for social inclusion. Yet, the literature identifies uneven patterns of success in those endeavors. Scholars argue that states more readily consider claims based on the recognition and protection of cultural difference as legitimate, but are resistant to calls for the remedy of racial discrimination. As a counterexample, we examine the case of affirmative action in higher education in Brazil, and specifically in the state universities of Rio de Janeiro. We explore how issues of racial exclusion and discrimination gained traction in public policy in that context. Perhaps more importantly, though, we show that race was only one component of that policy; instead, race was combined with class to establish a new type of beneficiary status for affirmative action: poor black students. Beyond Rio de Janeiro, we suggest the wider diffusion in Brazil of the combined race and class category for determining target populations.

Objetives: access to higher education in Brazil, in the context of affirmative action policies, has been extensively debated, focusing mainly on student admission and trajectory. This study broadens this discussion by exploring affirmative action students’ access to academic opportunities during undergraduate studies, analyzing the effects of affirmative action on access to academic grants. Theoretical approach: the aim is to analyze how socio-economic characteristics and the mode of admission (open competition or affirmative action) affect students’ access to academic opportunities, with an emphasis on academic grants. Methods: using microdata from the 2019 National Student Performance Exam (ENADE), we conducted aggregate econometric analyses using Logit and segmented by academic grant category econometric analyses using multinomial Logit. Results: the results show an unequal distribution of academic grants in favor of affirmative action students, but influenced by socioeconomic factors. Conclusions: the conclusions of this study contribute to the understanding of the effectiveness of affirmative action policies in the context of academic opportunities, providing insights for the development of more inclusive and equitable policies in Brazilian higher education.

How believing in affirmative action quotas protects White men’s self-esteem

I Affirmative Action Policies and Programs.- 1 Introduction: Affirmative Action and the Question of Standards.- 2 What is Affirmative Action?.- 3 Affirmative Action and Presidential Executive Orders.- 4 Affirmative Action and the Courts.- 5 Employment Screening, Qualifications, and Gender Discrimination: A Case Study of the New York City Firefighters.- 6 Women in Federal Government Employment.- II Reactions to Affirmative Action.- 7 Resistance to Affirmative Action: The Implications of Aversive Racism.- 8 Affirmative Action and Self-Evaluation.- 9 Who Likes Affirmative Action: Attitudinal Processes Among Men and Women.- 10 Administrators' Perceptions of Affirmative Action in Higher Education.- 11 Reactions to Affirmative Action: A Case Study.- III Why Bother?.- 12 Labor Market Discrimination in the United States.- 13 Affirmative Action and Aggregate Data: The Importance of Patterns in the Perception of Discrimination.- 14 Affirmative Action and the Challenge of the Color-blind Perspective.- 15 The Justice of Affirmative Action.- 16 Effective Affirmative Action Programs.

Affirmative Action and Minority Enrollments in Medical and Law Schools, by Susan Welch and John Gruhl. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998. 221 pp. $39.50, paper. Despite the controversy generated by affirmative action in higher education, the actual effects of the programs have been thoroughly analyzed. Instead, the arguments over race-based remedies have been symbolic. With respect to professional training, such as that provided by medical and law schools, the role of affirmative action has been based on anecdotes and assumptions about a few outstanding individuals. These include Bernard Chavis, the African American doctor who graduated from University of California-Davis medical school through the special admissions program Allan Bakke challenged. Initially held up as a success story, Chavis, with later malpractice allegations raised against him, was turned into a cautionary example. Among other examples are Benjamin Carson, the African American who chairs the pediatric neurosurgery department at prestigious Johns Hopkins University, and who separated twins conjoined at the head; Johnny Cochran, who led the dream team defense counsel in the 0. J. Simpson murder trial; and Vernon Jordan, one of the powerful lawyers in the nation's capital, regardless of race. Affirmative Action and Minority Enrollments in Medical and Law Schools presents a longawaited and much-needed empirical basis for the public discourse. Welch and Gruhl's book is a supplement to the massive Bowen and Bok (1998) study, The Shape of the River. It differs from that work in its emphasis on institutional decision making in response to legal doctrines. Although this type of evidence is vital to the affirmative action debate, it is not, as the authors themselves implicitly conclude, sufficient to resolve the matter. As Christopher Edley, Jr. (1996), the Harvard professor who led the Clinton Administration's mend-it-don't-end-it review of affirmative action policies, has argued, facts matter but values matter most (p. 73). At stake are competing visions of what the institutions of this nation, elite as well as public, should look like and how best to realize those ideals. Both the ends and the means are contested. Using a questionnaire sent in March 1989 to the 118 medical schools and 154 law schools that were operating when the Supreme Court decided Bakke v. Regents of the University of California (1978), Welch and Gruhl describe how these institutions practiced affirmative action, whether they changed in response to legal restrictions, and, importantly, whether these efforts to remedy racial/ ethnic discrimination worked. Their study deserves consideration by policymakers and administrators who care about racial/ethnic diversity in higher education. As Welch and Gruhl explain, the Supreme Court was highly divided in Bakke, with four justices voting in favor of affirmative action in theory and four justices voting against affirmative action as it was being practiced. Justice Louis Powell, the Richmond, Virginia, corporate lawyer who had led the American Bar Association, reached a famous compromise. He reasoned that affirmative action could satisfy constitutional standards if it resembled the Harvard College plan, which took race into account as a factor, but it violated constitutional norms if it relied on strict quotas. The Powell opinion has been heavily criticized from quarters as being impossible to follow. Nonetheless, until the Supreme Court ruled in its 1995 case of Adarand v. Pena (1995) that affirmative action is the legal equivalent of invidious discrimination, the Powell approach effectively governed affirmative action. Welch and Gruhl present many basic findings about the role of legal doctrine in shaping institutional behavior related to affirmative action. Not surprisingly, they note, virtually those responding to their survey had heard of the Bakke decision. Surprisingly, however, 77% of medical school officials and 63% of law school officials reported that it changed their policies not at all (p. …

Affirmative Action and the Law analyses the practical application of affirmative action measures and their efficacy in achieving substantive equality through the lenses of the United Nations human rights machinery and the legal regime and policies implemented in China, India, Central and South America, South Africa and the United Kingdom. The product of a joint research project involving academics from the Brazil, Chile, Mexico, India, Spain and the United Kingdom, the findings identify and reflect on trends emerging from State practice across the world in eradicating structural inequality through special measures for certain designated groups. The book seeks to provide a coherent and systematic approach to the analysis of special measures in the targeted countries. It also comprises two case-studies with in-depth insights on gender diversity on the boards of public listed companies in the UK and the European Union and the access of persons with disabilities to higher education in Brazil. The book will be a valuable resource for students and academics in the field of human rights, law, sociology and politics. It will also provide a source of good practice for states and policy makers in the framing of responses to increased inequality at national and international level; and for civil society actors seeking to explore meaningful interaction with a highly controversial topic in society.

Using recent data, this study examines the affirmative action programme of the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), the first Brazilian university to implement admissions quotas. The article analyses admissions records and finds that both the ratio of applications per place and minimum admission scores are considerably lower among quota students; scores in the admissions test are associated principally with socio-economic factors rather than racial ones; preparatory courses for the university's admissions tests do not appear to be a substitute for the quota system in terms of improving access; few quota applicants would be admitted in the absence of the system; and the applicants who displace others come from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. The article concludes that it is necessary to improve the quality of basic education in Brazil in order to enable disadvantaged applicants to compete.