Adult Education and Cultural Diversity in Brazil: National Policies and Contributions of Higher Education

Multicultural Brazil in the BRICS Countries: Potentials for the Social Sciences and Humanities

“…It is divided into 26 states (and one federal district-Brasilia), each of them divided into several districts or municipalities. As argued elsewhere ( Canen, 2011( Canen, , 2012Ivenicki, 2015), Brazil has seen some waves of immigration into its territory throughout certain periods of its history. Having been conquered by the Portuguese in 1500, indigenous populations were affected by colonialism.…”

“…According to previous studies (Canen, 2012;Ivenicki, 2015), that multicultural perspective can also be noticed through a cursory look at the ten-year strategic National Plan of Education in Brazil (Brazil, PNE, 2014), which is the ten year (2014-2024) national plan with intended educational principles, goals and strategies. Here, the emphasis shifts to the education of the marginalised young generation (particularly those between 18 and 24 years old) to prepare them both to professional/vocational and higher education paths.…”

“…Concerning quality control in higher education (HE), it has been at the centre of debates in Brazil and elsewhere. As suggested in previous research (Canen, 2012;Ivenicki, 2015), two aspects have to be borne in mind concerning the evaluation of quality in education in Brazil, namely: (i) the multiple systems that seem to coexist in the Brazilian higher education scenario; and (ii) the ways, in which both academic excellence and social inclusion have been dialectically intertwined within Brazilian higher education evaluation policies.…”

“…Side by side with that quality control conceived within the scope of homogenised, large-scale assessment instruments, another discourse seems to emerge in policies concerning higher education. In fact, as argued by Ivenicki (2015), given the emphasis on the social debt towards marginalised groups of adults and the need to prepare them for a globalised market society, a critical multicultural approach is perceived when Universities are called to be more inclusive so as to more clearly reflect Brazilian students' cultural, ethnic and racial diversity. In that sense, noteworthy are the measures to ensure the presence of black, indigenous and poor students coming from public government paid schools, through the higher education entrance quotas for those groups, compulsory for public universities.…”

Brazilian education system: Aims, achievements and alignment with the BRICS organisation

“…As reported by Ivenicki (2015), a significant number of adults have not acquired basic literacy and numeracy skills during their childhood. Mello and Braga (2018) add that adult women and men without elementary schooling belong to or could be described as a vulnerable group in Brazil.…”