XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

Diversity education in debate

• In Event: Education and Society in Brazil

Abstract

Although diversity allows for multiple approaches in its interface with Education, academic, journalistic and business publications prioritize the dissemination of studies in the field of Organizational Studies on two central fronts: i) inclusive practices are financially profitable for organizations; and, ii) the existence of underrepresented groups in the workplace is persistent. Even though these studies bring counterintuitive results, the debate on education for diversity in Organizational Studies is limited to the prevalence of certain approaches, which shows how much progress we have to make on the agenda. To contribute to this advancement, the central objective of this article is to investigate education for diversity in the training of new generations of administrators in Brazil. The project brings together an empirical base made up of 286 reflective diaries written by Administration graduates, after taking an elective course in diversity. The collection was carried out in the city of São Paulo, between 2016 and 2022, within one of the main Business Schools in Latin America. As a result, this article expands the debate on interfaces between diversity education and Organizational Studies in Brazil. This is because this research echoes the voices of Brazilian business students, whose diversity was a value incorporated into their academic training. This article proposes diversity education as an alternative approach to understanding the effects of inclusive practices in organizations. It also highlights the potential of the diversity theme to think about the impacts of education for diversity in Organizational Studies in the Brazilian context.

Author

• André Silva, USP