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Postado em: 19 May, 2026

With Project SETA’s support, students participate in their first exchange program in the United States

Programa Abdias do Nascimento

With the Program Abdias do Nascimento, which was supported by the SETA Project, students participated in the exchange program at the University of Maryland.

The year 2025 marked the first edition of the Academic Program Abdias Nascimento, an exchange program that gathered 14 visiting research scholars to spend a semester of their Master’s or Ph.D. at the University of Maryland, in Baltimore, in the United States. The initiative was supported by the SETA Project.

The course was intended to serve students who are: black, mixed-race, indigenous, quilombola – residents of quilombos or maroon communities, from rural communities, as well as students with disabilities, who are enrolled in post-graduate programs at the State University of Campinas (UniCamp), the University of São Paulo (USP), and the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA).

The fruit of those who paved the way

According to Elizabeth Alves, a doctoral candidate in Education at UniCamp, one of the program’s awardees, having access to this opportunity means recognizing herself as the fruit of those who paved the way for black people who began this journey before her.

“Walking through the university and noticing so many black students was deeply moving. Beyond that, seeing women like me in high-level positions, such as the University President, and getting to know the Historical Black Universities was also really important”, Elizabeth comments.

For André Pimentel, a PhD candidate in Anthropology at UniCamp, the program is significant because it tackles a delicate topic: making international exchange more democratic and accessible.

“It is something that is even more requested for those who wish to follow the career path as researchers; however, there are usually challenges in accessing it, especially for black students, people from low-income backgrounds, and beneficiaries of affirmative action programs”, she emphasizes.

The program Abdias do Nascimento is an initiative from the Ministry of Education (MEC) and the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher-Education Personnel (CAPES). The program’s objective is to foster racial equality, combat racism, and uplift Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous culture, in addition to advancing research development in these areas.

 

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Structural racism in Brazil has systemically hindered access to the right to equal and quality public education by black, quilombola and indigenous students. The quality of education that children receive in Brazil is deeply segmented by racial and socioeconomic status. And, today, it is identified that the gaps between white children and black, quilombola and indigenous children, in all basic education indicators, are persistent and more serious for young people aged 11 to 17. Black, quilombola and indigenous children and young people are the most likely to drop out of school, have higher exclusion rates and have lower educational levels. Therefore, they are assigned the less prestigious and lower-paying jobs as adults. Meanwhile, white students internalize the racial inequities they are exposed to in schools and replicate them as adults. When looking at learning indicators, it is also concluded that there are not only more barriers to accessing school for black, quilombola and indigenous children, but that once at school, these children are less likely to access quality education.

The SETA Project seeks to carry out transformative actions based on evidence resulting from studies that help to understand the complexity of racial relations in the country and the resulting problems that need to be faced. In this sense, it foresees a series of studies with national and regional perspectives in its territories of intervention, especially in Amazonas, Maranhão, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The objective is to map the perception of society in general, of education professionals and students about racism, racial inequalities in general and in education, the effectiveness of policies to combat racism, the gaps in tools and methodologies to promote racial equity and successful strategies and good national and international practices that can inspire actions to value diversity and differences and mitigate inequalities, especially in the area of education.

1) Biannual public mapping survey on perceptions of racism in Brazilian society.
2) Biannual focus groups on school communities’ perceptions of racism.
3) Monitoring and evaluation of educational indicators with analysis of education indicators focusing on race, gender and territory.
4) Studies led by the organizations that make up the SETA Project on “indigenous school education”, “quilombola school education”, “educational trajectory of black girls”, “black youth, education and violence”, “impact of secondary education reform on deepening of educational inequalities” and “participatory construction of indicators and diagnosis on quality in education and racial relations”.
All of these productions are/will be made publicly available to assist society in the construction of qualified narratives, based on the portrait of reality, in defense of racial equity in education, in addition to guiding project actions.

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THE SETA PROJECT – EDUCATION SYSTEM FOR AN ANTI-RACIST TRANSFORMATION IS A PROJECT SUPPORTED BY THE W. K. KELLOGG FOUNDATION, SINCE 2021, WHICH BRINGS TOGETHER NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ACTING TOGETHER FOR AN ANTI-RACIST AND QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION.