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About

This Colloquium is organised by the project POLITICS | The politics of antiracism in Europe and Latin America [ERC, GA No: 725402], together with the Faculty of Education of UFRJ, and aims to reflect on the challenges and achievements in Brazilian public higher education within the advances and challenges of the antiracist agenda in the field of higher education. The inclusion of the demands arising from the antiracist agenda in the Brazilian educational system, resulting from the (black and indigenous) social movements’ struggle has reshaped itself since the 2000s, and in this perspective we are interested in promoting a critical debate on the achievements and obstacles arising from the implementation of policies to combat racism and affirm ethnic-racial diversity in the educational field. The National Colloquium "Anti-racist Education and Curricular Practices in Brazilian Public University" intends to foster the debate on the processes of production of knowledge on race and (anti-)racism in undergraduate (bachelor and graduate) courses of higher education, and Federal Institutes and Centres of Education (IFB/CEFET), with special attention to curricular practices.

We intend to generate a space for dialogue and exchange of experiences on the impacts of anti-racist public policies such as Law No. 10.639/2003, Law No. 11.645/2008, the National Curricular Guidelines for the Education of Ethnic-Racial Relations (2004) and their developments, especially in the curricular structures of undergraduate and graduate courses, with special attention to the Human and Social Sciences. We intend to reflect to what extent the advancement of the anti-racist agenda has enabled political, pedagogical, curricular and, why not, epistemological changes in Brazilian public higher education.

Programmatic lines of the Colloquium:

Theme 1: Policies of recognition and their unfolding in public education: the teaching of Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous History and Culture

This theme proposes a dialogue on the impacts of public policies in the field of Education in Brazil, with a view to an anti-racist education. Thus, we have as objectives: to promote a critical analysis of educational public policies, following the example of Law nº 10.639/2003, Law nº 11.645/2008, the National Curricular Guidelines for the Education of Ethnic-Racial Relations (2004) and its unfoldings, regarding its implementation. Thus, we propose a discussion of approaches to ethnic-racial discussion in educational curricula in a critical way, as well as a dialogue with the academic community that has contributed to the antiracist struggle and questioned the production and dissemination of Eurocentric knowledge. However, some questions may offer starting points for the debate:

1. What is the impact on the Brazilian educational system and its curricular matrixes in relation to the implementation of laws 10.639/2003, 11.645/2008 and the National Curricular Guidelines for the Education of Ethnic-Racial Relations?
2. What are the advances and (challenges) still found in the implementation of the teaching of Afro-Brazilian, African, and indigenous history and culture in university curricula?

Theme 2: Teacher training, pedagogical projects and antiracist curricular practices at the Brazilian public university

The establishment of the compulsory Teaching of Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous History and Culture in the Brazilian educational system and the elaboration of the National Implementation Plan of the National Curricular Guidelines for the Education of Ethnic-Racial Relations and for the Teaching of Afro-Brazilian and African History and Culture has involved, among other points, the change of practices and revision of the educational curricula in degree courses in a critical perspective to Eurocentrism, still so present in teacher training. In the words of Nilma Gomes (2012, p.100), the change in law implies "changes in representation and practices. It requires questioning the places of power. It questions the relationship between rights and privileges rooted in our political and educational culture, in our schools and in the university itself". We add to this discussion the position of Young (2004, p.201), for whom "the curriculum is always: a system of social relations and power". In view of the above, we indicate some questions as a starting point for the present theme:

1. If and how has the articulation between the different levels of education, areas and courses for the institutionalisation of an antiracist curriculum policy occurred?
2. How has the including of Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous History and Culture Teaching and its Guidelines been in the training of teachers, pedagogical projects and antiracist curricular practices in the Brazilian public university?

Theme 3: Towards the expansion of university education in Brazil in the years 2000 and antiracist education

In recent decades in Brazil, the Federal Institutions of Higher Education (IFES) have gone through a process of expansion and interiorization with the creation of 18 new federal universities and 173 campuses of federal universities in cities in the interior of the country, among other advances. In Phase I (2003-2007) the priority of the expansion process was to reduce the regional asymmetries responsible for the concentration of federal universities in metropolises and regions with higher purchasing power. In this sense, ten federal universities were created in priority non-metropolitan regions, of which 40% in the Southeast, 30% in the South, 20% in the Northeast and 10% in the Central West.

The second phase (2008 to 2012) was marked by both the continuation of the process of internalizing the IFES and the implementation of the Support Programme for Restructuring and Expansion Plans of Federal Universities (Reuni), which focused on the restructuring and expansion of these institutions, with the creation of four universities in the border states of southern Brazil, the Amazon region, Latin American countries, and Portuguese-speaking countries in other continents, such as Africa and Asia.
The third phase (2012 to 2014), regional development and special programmes, included the creation of 47 new campuses and four new universities, three in the northeast and one in the north. The cycle was guided not only by the establishment of new units, but also by the implementation of specific policies for regional integration, settlement and development. The following are some of the issues that may guide the debate:

1. How is the expansion and interiorization of higher education in different areas of knowledge contributing to an anti-racist education?
2. How has the inclusion of Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous History and Culture Teaching been in the training of teachers, pedagogical projects and antiracist curricular practices in the new universities, Institutes and Federal Centres of Education?  

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Organising Committee: Silvia Rodríguez Maeso (Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra); Amilcar Araujo Pereira (UFRJ); Danielle Pereira de Araújo (Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra); Marcos Silva (Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra).