One Less Indigenous Teacher in the Natural Sciences: An Anti-Racist Analysis of the Reasons for Abandoning an Undergraduate Course in Biology

Abstract

Structural racism and the ongoing modern-colonizing project in Latin America would not be the same without the contributions of Modern Western Science. Contradictorily, it is also through the sciences — especially social sciences — that colonialities have been challenged. Inspired by decolonial criticism, we tell the life story of Waxihô Karajá, an indigenous Karajá Xambioá man who entered and abandoned a Biology course. The results illustrate how Iny indigenous education contributed to the development of Waxihô Karajá's interest in Biology. Our analysis also reveals that the low quality of basic education offered in indigenous communities; the unpreparedness of higher education institutions to receive diversity; the difficulties experienced by young people with low-education backgrounds and the energy expended by cultural minorities to combat a myriad of colonial violences through student activism can compromise academic success. Results indicate that the approach and the departure from natural science courses by young indigenous people seem to have reasons that are sometimes similar and sometimes different from those listed in the research with young people from the national society. There is an urgent need to reorient university retention policies to promote the academic success of indigenous students in natural sciences courses.

Keywords

• sociological portraits
• indigenous students
• dropout
• structural racism
• coloniality