RELAÇÕES DE GÊNERO, DESIGUALDADE RACIAL E A POLÍTICA DE COTAS NA EDUCAÇÃO SUPERIOR: A UNIVERSIDADE ESTADUAL DE GOIÁS

Abstract

This PhD thesis is based on the Educational Process, Social practice for teaching-learning, and Social Differences research line and is comprised of the Research and Studies in Educational Process, Gender, and Education study group, which, currently, has increased discussions on themes referred to gender relations, affirmative action (racial quotas), and education. Within such relations, it can be highlighted social dynamics, and the formation of male and female gender roles, which, enhanced by major social institutions – family, religions, and education – tend to do social reproduction (social structures and systems, including patriarchy) by means of common-sense speech, in several scenarios, which, among them, appears higher education, or the academic realm, whilst affirmative actions seek compensation or correction of social and racial inequalities, specifically for those from lower social classes. This work aims at analyzing gender relations, as well as social, racial, and economic inequalities in higher education, scrutinizing how affirmative actions (racial quotas), especially those created by the state of Goiás (State Law No. 14,832, sanctioned on the 12th of July, 2004), have been used, in the State University of Goiás, as a mechanism and instrument for black and non-black undergraduate students to be admitted to the aforementioned university, and to fully have access to all its facilities, not dropping out of classes. The setting of this research is the State University of Goiás (UEG, in the Brazilian Portuguese initials) and its social inclusion policy through affirmative actions, implemented in its campuses and facilities. Nowadays, UEG has, according to Decree No. 9,593, sanctioned, on the 17th of January, 2020, three Offices of Graduate Studies, five Institutes of Higher Education, organized according to fields of knowledge, eight campuses, categorized in strategic areas throughout the state, and it clusters, in its facilities, 33 (thirty-three) Teaching Units, and 62 (sixty-two) distance learning hubs (DL hubs). Regarding the methods chosen, this is a qualitative and quantitative research, based on case study, in which it has been used, as data collection tools, researcher-administered questionnaires to a survey sampling of 256 undergraduate students, in addition to the conduction of qualitative interviews with 12 black and mixed-race women who attend UEG undergraduate courses. The statistical survey, referred to the number of black and non-black undergraduate students enrolled in UEG, between 2012 and 2021, was examined based on the university education system, to corroborate acceptance, and continuation rates, besides academic degrees earned after the 17th anniversary of the racial quotas affirmations act in UEG. In respect of data triangulation, it has been employed four themes: 1 – UEG students’ social and academic profiles; 2 – UEG and affirmation actions: acceptance, continuation, and gender issues; 3 – Black and non-black students’ impressions on racial quotas in UEG; and 4 – Black and mixed-race female undergraduate students’ journeys in higher education. The outcomes are that UEG, due to its well-established presence and social inclusion measures employed, is a Higher Education Institution (HEI) that is capable of including, in its facilities, lots of people who are socially excluded, especially black and mixed-race women, although the university provides them with, in most of its campuses, Teaching Units, and distance learning hubs, a settling of how occupations become gendered, which, combined with gender and social division of labor, validate ways of fighting gender, race/systemic, social inequalities in the academic realm.

Keywords: Gender Relations; Racial Inequality; Higher Education; Affirmative Actions (Racial Quotas); State University of Goiás.