What is the place of whiteness in Ceará education? Student and faculty perceptions of being white in this place

Abstract

Racial inequality between black and white students is a fact crystallized in educational research (Hasenbalg, 1980; Munanga, 2000; Oliveira, 2019). For a considerable time, the black subject became the object of research to observe these gaps between these two racial groups. However, the movement to think about the other character in race relations - the white person - has become a keynote in ethnic-racial studies, in order to enable and problematize them in this debate, a field called critical whiteness studies (Ramos, 1995; Cardoso, 2008; Bento, 2002). In this sense, in order to contribute to the discussion, this article aims to think about how white students from two public high schools in the state of Ceará understand their race in this space. In addition, methodologically, participant observation (Caldwell; Atwal, 2005) was necessary, as well as semi-structured interviews (Triviños, 1987) with students who declared themselves white. As a preliminary result, it was observed that, in both school A and B, there are still no crystallized discussions about the privilege of white people in society. In addition, it was noted that only in one of the institutions is there a perception of privilege, whether material or symbolic, but perceptible in the school institution, as a result of grades in assessments.