Educational expansion for whom? Federal Institutes and educational access in perspective

Abstract:

This paper analyzes in a critical-historic way elements of the expansion of the Federal Network of Professional, Scientific and Federal Institutes of Education, which took place in the 2000’s first two decades. It targets to demonstrate the effects of this process in amplifying federal public education as well as the impacts through socioeconomic and ethnic-racial student’s features. It also seeks to demonstrate, through quantitative analyses, the effects of such process in expanding access to public education, as well as in reconfiguring the socioeconomic and ethnic-racial profile of students. It concludes that one of the legacies of the expansion of Federal Institutes of Education has been the expansion of access to education for working-class students, especially those who self-identify as “mixed-race”, although supporting student permanence remains as a challenge for such institutions.

Keywords:
Education; Federal Institutes of Education; Students