“The Education of Ethnic-Racial Relations in Brazil”

A presentation by doctoral student of the Department of African and African Diaspora Studies
Dalila Fernandes de Negreiros

December 8th, 2017
12:30-1:30 pm
Mitchell Hall 206

Abstract:
The result of research between 2010 and 2014 in public institutions of Brazil as the Ministry of Education, Secretariat for the Promotion of Racial Equality Policies, and the University of Brasilia, “The Education of Ethnic-Racial Relations in Brazil” analyzes the implementation of Law 10639/2003 that requires teaching African and Afro-Brazilian culture and history in basic education; the actions related to this law were called education of ethnic-racial relations.

The education of ethnic-racial relations is an axis of a strategy to combat racism and the recognition of the diverse historical and cultural heritage of Brazil. To implement such a policy requires a set of actions and a network of actors that makes its analysis extremely complex. This research focused on teacher’s training; the specific objectives are: i) to describe the Politics of Promotion of Racial Equality, highlighting the Education of Ethnic-racial Relations as one of its elements; ii) to indicate the state of implementation of the Education of ethnic-racial relations through research and consultations carried out by the Ministry of Education and Secretariat of Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality; iii) to analyze the process of implementation of teacher education in the Ethnic-Racial Relations Education through the Brazilian Education and UNIAFRO Education Program of the Ministry of Education.

In addition to giving an overview of the state of the art of the implementation of this policy highlighting the process of including this policy in the governmental decision-making agenda, this research also helps to evidence the difficulties and critical points of a policy to combat racism in Brazil.