Ações afirmativas e formação de professores na UNIFAL-MG: tensionamentos e fatores que influenciam os estudantes do curso de licenciatura em matemática

Abstract

This study aims to analyze how affirmative action policies can promote access, retention, academic survival, and teacher education for students belonging to underrepresented groups in the Mathematics Teacher Education (Licentiate) program at the Federal University of Alfenas (UNIFAL-MG), considering the factors and tensions that shape their academic trajectories. The research was conducted in two complementary stages: first, a documentary study based on data provided by the university for the period from 2019 to 2024, analyzing the occupancy and vacancy rates of places in the program; students’ socioeconomic profile, prior schooling, municipality of origin, gender, racial self-identification, and use of affirmative action policies; as well as dropout indicators, including withdrawals, dismissals, and completion rates; and second, semi-structured interviews with 12 students who benefited from affirmative action policies at admission and/or during their studies, aiming to understand the challenges and support mechanisms affecting their retention, academic survival, and teacher education. The documentary analysis revealed recurrent under-enrollment in certain quota categories, especially those reserved for persons with disabilities and low-income students who self-identify as Black, Brown, or Indigenous, and showed that, despite an expansion of racial and social diversity in the program over time, structural inequalities that directly affect student retention persist, as evidenced by significant dropout rates, reinforcing the need for more effective institutional support policies. The interviews, analyzed using a technique inspired by Content Analysis and organized into five thematic axes—motivations for choosing a teaching career in Mathematics; factors and challenges related to retention; experiences of prejudice; perceptions and experiences related to mathematical content; and teacher education and personal experiences—indicate that while students recognize the importance of affirmative action policies for university access, the lack of continuous support is one of the main barriers to their retention, with frequent reports of financial difficulties, conflicted relationships with professors, gender prejudice, racial microaggressions, and microaggressions related to mathematical content, often aggravated by low representativeness and a curriculum that engages little with their sociocultural realities. At the same time, students highlighted the positive role of tutoring programs, extension projects, PIBID, extracurricular activities, supportive faculty, and peer relationships in coping with difficulties and strengthening their sense of belonging. Overall, the findings support the thesis that students benefiting from affirmative action policies—particularly in Exact Sciences programs—face specific tensions in higher education that require institutional retention policies beyond access alone, demonstrating that their academic success depends not only on individual effort but also on structural conditions that promote belonging, psychosocial support, and the valuing of diversity, and underscoring the need for an institutional and programmatic commitment to more equitable teacher education, especially in Mathematics Teacher Education, with the expectation that this study will contribute to the improvement of affirmative action policies and to more equitable practices in Brazilian higher education.