Affirmative policies of quotas and the democratization of Brazilian public higher education: the perceptions of third-year students of a public high school in Ribeirão Preto on democracy, citizenship and university

Abstract

This research project presents as its main issue the recent socio-political democratization processes of Brazilian State and society, focusing on the implementation of quotas' affirmative policies in public institutions of higher education. The main objective is to examine the high school third-year students perceptions of Otoniel Mota public school in Ribeirão Preto on the relationship between democracy, citizenship, access and permanence in university, in order to understand how these specific public policies influence the construction of these students' horizons and personal life trajectories. As for secondary objectives, it is aimed: a) to rescue and systematize the available historical sources (eg. books, reports, news etc.) related to the school under examination, concerning to better understand the social and political environment that have been developed in it; b) to conduct a literature review on: Theory of the Constitution, the right to education in the constitutional history of Brazil and the correspondents State and society models; c) to introduce some categories/theoretical elements that are present in political sociology studies, which may help thinking the relationships and contradictions that are imbricated in the discourses involving democracy, citizenship, effetivation of the right to education and the access and permanence in university; d) to further the studies on qualitative approaches of data in social sciences, in order to improve the use of the proposed methodology. This research should be found theoretically on the critical analysis of jurists, political and social scientists, who discuss the senses of democracy, citizenship and university which are historic and socially produced in Brazil, considering the current challenges in giving effectiveness to the right to education and in democratizing the university. As for methodology of investigation, it is proposed to hold a qualitative kind of research, by using semi-structured interviews and the Discourse Analysis to support the interpretation of the data collected. It is hoped that the findings of the research dialogue with the political and legal studies which address to the effectiveness of the right to education, the democratization of higher education and the improvement of affirmative policies of quotas in the Brazilian context. (AU)