Higher Education in the Brazilian way: a documentary cartography

Abstract

This article, derived from a doctoral thesis, conducts a genealogical analysis of Higher Education in Brazil, examining the power dynamics that have shaped it. Using documentary cartography as a method, the study identifies the convergence between modernity, coloniality, and neoliberalism, which resulted in an educational model aligned with the ideal of order and progress. The text explores how these forces constituted a Higher Education in the Brazilian way, highlighting its contradictions. In conclusion, it problematizes Higher Education as a space that, while reproducing ontological violence from entrenched epistemological assumptions, also offers potential for transformation and critique. By presenting these problematizations, the text proposes a rethinking of the University's role, highlighting not only its mechanisms of domination but also its destabilizing potential and the possibilities for political and epistemic reinvention.