Dissertation
For whom the quotas count: negotiating Blackness in Brazilian higher education
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Drexel University
Mar 2018
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/D8FQ0P
Abstract
Affirmative action was employed in 2002 to increase access to the elite system of Brazilian higher education. This policy, deemed constitutional by Brazil's Supreme Court in 2012, supports the use of reserved spaces for underrepresented students based on race, ethnicity, class, ability, public school attendance, and for children of officers killed in the line of duty. The race-based quota system has allowed more Black students to attend quality universities, however, at what expense? Race continues to be a complex issue in Brazil where more than half of its citizens identify as non-White. As a result, this complicates understandings of race in general and who should benefit from quotas in particular. Using a critical ethnographic design, this study examines how self identified Black university students negotiate race, their status as quota students, and other identities under a policy mandated to ensure opportunity on one hand, within institutional environments that restrict opportunity on the other. Conceptually grounded in critical race theory and intersectionality, this research centers race as a unit of analysis that when compounded by the existence of other identities, creates particular outcomes and experiences in educational spaces. Findings from interviews, observations, and critical discourse analysis reveal that Black students proactively manage their identities despite institutional challenges. Although Brazil provides the setting for this dissertation, it serves as one case in the larger global context of addressing the complex relationship between universities, underrepresented students, and policies that sometimes miss the mark when confronting issues of equity.
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Details
- Title
- For whom the quotas count
- Creators
- Jeaná Evonne Morrison - DU
- Contributors
- Rebecca A. Clothey (Advisor) - Drexel University (1970-)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Number of pages
- ix, 149 pages
- Resource Type
- Dissertation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- School of Education (1997-2026); Drexel University
- Other Identifier
- 7928; 991014632419104721