Quilombola Students in the University, transforming Education and Research. Political-Methodological Reflections

Abstract

Written in a dialogical and narrative style by two professors, a quilombola master’s graduate and a quilombola PhD student from the Federal University of Pará, this paper is the result of a political-reflective commitment to quilombola students in both undergraduate and graduate programs. The starting point is the conviction that it is necessary not only to ensure access and retention of these students but also to create conditions for transforming epistemological and methodological perspectives, which are still influenced by the scientific climate of modernity-coloniality in which they emerged. In this sense, we emphasise their role as agents of transformation within educational contexts and research pathways, aiming to strengthen their impact in promoting broader decolonial changes within academia. Specifically, the paper is organized into seven sections: following the introduction, we delve into situated knowledge, escrevivência, social cartography, action research, dialogicality, and the in-between space perspective, which characterize quilombola methodologies of knowledge production as well as their way of inhabiting the university. In the conclusion, we briefly revisit the main points of the discussion.