Os Akwẽ-Xerente: uma análise sobre o ingresso e a permanência no Ensino Superior

Abstract

In Brazil, indigenous peoples were neglected, silenced and devalued, with their culture, habits and traditions forgotten, in order to impose a civilizational, colonizing and racist culture that persists to this day. In this segment, this dissertation has as main objective to map possibilities, expectations and difficulties of the Akwẽ-Xerente in the entry and permanence in the Federal University of Tocantins - UFT, campus Miracema do Tocantins. For the development of the study, surveys were made on: the slave and genocidal practices that have a result in the colonial period, practices that make up the Brazilian educational genesis, on the creation of the state of Tocantins, developing a brief presentation of who the Akwẽ-Xerente are, focusing on characteristics of traditional Akwẽ education, which has currently taken new directions from the perspective of entering and staying in higher education, this being an option of resistance, maintenance and cultural reaffirmation. The present work raises questions about the disinterest and the mistaken and prejudiced views on the part of the population about the culture of the Akwẽ indigenous peoples (various manifestations and rites), discusses about the field of Social Work and its action in relation to the defense of the survival of the culture and customs of indigenous peoples and finally presents and develops questions about affirmative action policies aimed at the permanence of indigenous students in the Universities, more precisely in uft and the perception of indigenous students about the functioning of these policies and about their experiences in the university. The method used was qualitative, bibliographic, documentary and field research through participant observation, interviews and dialogues with the Akwẽ, gathering reports of experiences of indigenous students of UFT. After collecting and discussing the data obtained, it was concluded that indigenous education has always suffered and still suffers cultural deficiency in school and higher education and that academic spaces, despite being composed of indigenous students, are still spaces with colonizing stretches that require revisions when it comes to the forms of reception, representations, methodologies and other conditions, such as awareness of the need to analyze indigenous educational issues under a historical and critical bias, sensitive to listen, learn and recognize the misinformation that surrounds us about these peoples.