O navio, a senzala e a escola: a questão dos docentes negros no ensino superior

Abstract

The present work is a historical-anthropological theoretical research aimed at identifying the factors related to the presence of black professors in Higher Education Institutions in Brazil. The original question the research was aimed at answering was: which factors have contributed to the inclusion of black professors in Higher Education? Initial findings showed that the minimal number of black professors in Universities did not allow mentioning inclusion, so the research turned to an investigation of reasons justifying the small number of black professors in the University, both in terms of absolute numbers and in relation to the percentage of black people in the Brazilian population. As from the formation of Brazilian people, studying and working conditions available to black people since Colonial Brazil were specifically analyzed while compared to the conditions offered to other ethnic groups. Studies by Darcy Ribeiro, Gilberto Freyre, Octávio Ianni and Florestan Fernandes, among other authors, contributed with elements and historical facts necessary to this analysis. The History of Education in Brazil and its relation to ethnic matters were briefly comprised by this work. Reflection was based on Bourdieu’s thought as to school’s reproducing inequalities present in society. It was concluded that the issue is considerably broad and goes beyond University boundaries. The reasons explaining black professors’ absence in Higher Education are thesame justifying their absence in other segments of society: inequality in starting points; lack of democratization, observed as from the inexistence of public policies effectively including not only for black people but also for other ethnic groups; explicit or masked racism; political-economic model. Such a result shows the need to extend the debate on the central issue and related issues to the entire civil society, especially school