The rise of diversity in contemporary educational policies

The goal of this research is to analyze the theoretical, practical and political conditions that enabled the emergence of the concept of “diversity” in educational public policies between the years 2003 and 2006. Utilized as a slogan in the first mandate of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, particularly in respect to the ministry of Education, this concept has gone through several political utilizations in the public policies of the federal government. The analysis of this process is based on the examination of the different perspectives identified in the national and international debates about culture and education. Some of the most prominent perspectives in these contexts were multiculralism, interculturalism, and black studies.

The scenario evinces the existence of a dispute between a “universalist diverse” perspective of education and another one grounded on cultural difference. As for the evaluation of public policies, the research utilizes as primary sources interviews, discourses and official documents, such as the Government Evaluation 2003-2010, the Multi-annual Plan 2004-2007, and the Budgetary Laws between 2003-2006, administration reports and notifications from Lula´s government, there was a process of institutionalization of diversity policies, but the utilizations of the concept of diversity are unequal and restricted to a few Secretariat of the Ministry of Education. Moreover, the research demonstrated that few of the programs that went through a process of institutionalization which had budgetary purposes, one of the reflexes of the multiple utilizations and diversity projects also in dispute in the political sphere.