Inequalities in High School Outcomes in Brazil: Determinants and Interventions

Macedo, Sandra Valeria Araujo (2023) Inequalities in High School Outcomes in Brazil: Determinants and Interventions. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the complex demographic and socioeconomic inequalities in the performance of Brazilian high-school performance. Using microdata from the nationwide Brazilian high-stakes university exams (N≈8 million), this study unveils the multifaceted nature of educational inequalities in Brazil across four self-contained chapters.

The first chapter focuses on a major national affirmative action (AA) policy, the Law of Quotas, designed to enhance access to elite public universities for public school students. Through isolating the effects of this policy from prior AA initiatives on different quota subgroups, this paper tests the hypothesis that a widely advertised AA programme can boost students’ motivation to invest in education. Results reveal improved performance of most quota subgroups after the law, with larger effects for non-white and high-income students.

Chapter 2 disentangles economic status into an absolute and a relative component, showing that they independently relate to exam results. Alongside the importance of material resources, this stresses the relevance of relative socioeconomic standing in triggering psychosocial mechanisms involving self-esteem, aspirations and identity.

Chapter 3 uses an intersectionality framework to study how absolute and relative standards of living interplay with gender and race, unfolding different interactive patterns. In a context marked by unequal opportunities and multifaceted discrimination, educational performance in Brazil emerges as directly linked to students' backgrounds.

The fourth chapter tests the “Mulatto Escape Hatch” hypothesis, a term coined in the 1970s in the realm of a comparison between racial relations in Brazil and the United States. Significant differences between the performance of blacks and ‘pardos’ (mixed race) are observed, lending support to the hypothesis. Achievement gaps between blacks and pardos, however, are much smaller in magnitude compared those between whites and non-whites.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Global Development (formerly School of International Development)
Depositing User:	Chris White
Date Deposited:	05 Aug 2024 14:06
Last Modified:	05 Aug 2024 14:06
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/96151
DOI:

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