Redes de apoio e permanência indígena no ensino superior: experiências situadas em uma universidade pública brasileira

Abstract

Access of Indigenous peoples to higher education has increased significantly in recent decades in Brazil. Beyond access, challenges related to student retention still persist, often affecting the continuity of Indigenous students’ academic trajectories. In this context, institutional support initiatives are essential, although frequently limited. Informal support networks, such as collectives, peer groups, and family ties, also play a fundamental role. This theoretical-reflective essay analyzes the role of formal and informal support networks in the retention of Indigenous students in higher education, based on the situated experiences of the authors: one non-Indigenous professor and two Indigenous undergraduate students. In dialogue with the literature and from an intersectional perspective, the article discusses three interrelated axes: institutional support networks; informal support networks; and the tensions and possibilities that traverse both. It argues that informal networks, often rendered invisible, play a central role in sustaining Indigenous students’ permanence at the university, especially in the face of racism and the limitations of specific institutional policies. At the same time, the university is understood as a space marked both by structural inequalities and by practices of resistance and collective support.