XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

School Segregation and Political Polarization: a comparison between school segregation in Northern Ireland and in Brazil and their consequences to divided societies

• In Event: Education and Society in Brazil

Abstract

In recent years, the world has been experiencing a general increase in political polarization within countries (Abramowitz & Saunders, 2008; Ezrow, Tavits & Homola, 2013). The current trend of struggles between groups with opposed political ideologies has generated an increase in political violence, causing many deaths to public officials, politicians, and the general population. In that context, this paper argues that ending school segregation is a key goal in mitigating the effects of political polarization and unifying divided societies. Since the terrible consequences of this phenomenon are especially harmful to countries that have historically been affected by conflict and social division, I adopted Brazil and Northern Ireland as examples to analyze this hypothesis. In Brazil, the so-called “war on drugs” has caused many innocent deaths and the mass incarceration of young, poor, and black Brazilians, mostly (Rybka, Nascimento & Guzzo, 2018). In Northern Ireland, the recent Troubles, the armed sectarian struggle between those who wanted a united Ireland and those who wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom, killed 3720 people (Mckittrick, 2007). As a result of its colonial history, Brazil’s educational system is segregated in terms of race and income. In Northern Ireland, school segregation is mostly based on religion and political identity. In this paper, I compare the phenomenon of education segregation in both countries, stating their many differences and similarities. Then, I analyze the effects of education segregation in society, particularly when it comes to its effect on political and ideological segregation.

Author

• Liz Andrade Varela, Davidson College