Trajetórias e fortalecimento identitário de indígenas egressos da educação superior no Estado de Mato Grosso do Sul

Abstract

This research is inserted in the Post-Graduate Program - Master's and Doctoral Degree in Education of the Federal University of Grande Dourados (UFGD) in the Education and Diversity Research Line. This study aims to investigate how higher education crosses the identity of indigenous graduates of higher education in the State of Mato Grosso do Sul (MS). Specific objectives were: A) To know the trajectory of the natives who enter higher education in the MS State; B) To know the expectations and difficulties faced and; C) Identify the different strategies adopted by them to stay in the presential undergraduate courses of the different HEIs operating in the State. This is a research of a qualitative nature, which approaches the Postcolonial Studies. The research was carried out through bibliographical research and field research. The online questionnaire and the semi-structured interview were used as instruments to interview eight indigenous academics graduating from face-to-face courses at five different Higher Education Institutions (IES). We relate the affirmative policies for access and permanence of indigenous people in higher education in the State of MS, paying attention to the material and symbolic factors that affect them. We also discuss the epistemic construction of identity, approaching Cultural Studies and its positioning and questioning about cultural identities in contemporary society, as well as the contributions of the Postcolonial authors and the Modernity/Coloniality group, as the epistemic displacement by them presented in the sense of understanding the possibility of the indigenous peoples subverting the Eurocentric logic imposed on them, having their identity recognized and strengthened. Finally, we discuss the identity crossings suffered or caused by and for the indigenous graduates of higher education, c to understand the implications and possible crossings that this level of education provides. As a conclusion, we have identified that education has become a strategy for indigenous peoples in strengthening their ethnic identities and that there is a complex negotiation of identities in the academic environment, with which indigenous people coexist without living with their places of their cultures and traditions, thus favoring the collective dimension of indigenous peoples.