Reports on the Permanence of Indigenous Students in the Post-Gratuation Programs at the Federal University of Amazonas

Abstract

By means of claims and affirmative action policies, more and more indigenous peoples have entered higher education. This research intended to investigate and understand the reasons for the indigenous people’s permanence in the Post-Graduate Programs (PPGs) of the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM). Based on qualitative research, we sent questionnaires to the 42 coordination offices of these PPGs and, subsequently, we interviewed 7 indigenous graduate students from different ethnic groups, with transcription and content analysis according to Bardin. We included three thematic units and categories: academic path of postgraduate students (schooling records; entrance at university); confrontations to remain at the university (difficulties, resistance, resolutions); suggestions and proposals. We conclude that financial, pedagogical, cultural, and social difficulties are the result of a hegemonic logic that continues to generate discrimination, inequality, and exclusion, but the commitment to oneself, to one’s family, ethnicity and indigenous causes provides them with the inspiration to resist and finish the course.