Inclusion of indigenous students in the Nursing course of the UFMT Sinop: Achievements and challenges

Abstract

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14244/19827199973

In the scope of the universities, new challenges are placed daily with the aim of overcoming the limitations which hinder the full participation of the subjects. In this sense, the inclusion of indigenous students in higher education represents an iconic and challenging reality. The article discusses how indigenous students and teachers who participate in the undergraduate course in Nursing from the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT) in Sinop, Brazil, perceive the Indigenous Inclusion Program (PROIND), introduced there. It is, therefore, an exploratory, descriptive and interpretative study. Four indigenous students and six teachers participated in the study. The data collection was carried out through semi-structured interviews. The perception of the students prioritized the operational and pragmatic aspects, since the political aspects and the critical perception appear only underlying. In their statements, access to higher education was perceived as a federal government initiative, available to the indigenous peoples, and not as a right, an achievement or mitigatory measure. For the teachers, the issue of affirmative policies created certain uneasiness either by not wishing to speak contrary to them, or because they could not find adequate arguments to fight or defend them. The formal entry and the daily presence of the indigenous students in university spaces, when analyzed by more careful lenses, reveal a new form of exclusion, sometimes explicit, sometimes dissimulated, especially in the classroom and spaces of socialization. As will be seen in the text, there is still much to be done and built in order to effectively universalize the offer of quality higher education for indigenous peoples.

Keywords: Indigenous students, Inclusion, Nursing.