Learning for Equity: Exploring the Relationship Between Ethnic-Racial Identity Projects and Youth Development in Brazil

• In Event: Equity, Agency, and Education Policy

Proposal

Context
Persistent ethnic-racial disparities in educational outcomes remain a major challenge in multi-ethnic societies, particularly in Brazil, where Afro-Brazilian students continue to experience lower achievement than White peers. While research (e.g., Umaña-Taylor et al., 2018; Bonilla et al., 2021) suggests ethnic-racial identity (ERI) development can help mitigate these disparities, most ERI studies focus on family settings, with limited attention to school-based practices, especially outside the U.S. This creates a gap in understanding how ERI supports youth development and advances equity and social justice.

Objectives
This study seeks to address these gaps by conducting a quantitative analysis to position Brazil within existing evidence on ERI’s psychosocial benefits for youth, testing whether U.S.-identified relationships hold in Brazil or whether new patterns emerge. Using the Equidade.info dataset from the Stanford Lemann Center of Brazilian Studies, I examine whether ERI-focused projects in Brazilian schools are associated with reduced academic stress, enhanced self-concept, greater belonging, increased civic engagement, and improved racial self-labeling capacity/willingness. I also analyze whether these associations differ for Afro-Brazilian compared to White students. These five psychosocial variables were chosen because they satisfy two conditions: they are present in the Equidade.info dataset, and academic evidence suggests they can be improved by ERI (e.g., Rivas-Drake et al., 2014). In addition, I explore whether ERI initiatives correlate with a decrease in school-based racial bias, particularly the whitening of mixed ancestry students’ racial identities.

Theoretical framework
ERI is defined as an individual’s sense of self related to ethnic heritage and racial background, encompassing awareness, beliefs, enactment, and knowledge (Williams et al., 2020). ERI is a critical developmental task for youth of color, especially in stratified racial systems like Brazil’s, and can serve as a protective factor against racial stressors such as discrimination and stereotype threat (Wong et al., 2003; Umaña-Taylor, 2018). These stressors impair cognitive processes (Evans et al., 2011; Levy et al., 2016) and are linked to lower academic success (Alfaro et al., 2009; Neblett et al., 2006). At the same time, assets such as positive ERI (Umaña-Taylor et al., 2012), group belonging (Wong et al., 2003), teacher support (Fall & Roberts, 2012), and affirming school environments (Goodenow & Grady, 1993) can buffer these effects, improving self-esteem, mental health, and academic adjustment (Umaña-Taylor, 2018). Youth who combine a positive sense of self with critical awareness of inequities also show higher civic engagement (Hope & Jagers, 2014), which supports broader development such as life satisfaction and educational attainment (Hope & Spencer, 2017).
The literature used as a conceptual base for this research consistently shows that individuals’ developmental processes respond to and are impacted by societal relations of power. This paper aligns with this idea, situating human development as shaped simultaneously by micro and macro processes (Rogers et al., 2021).

Data source
The Equidade.info dataset includes student, teacher, and principal data. The sample consists of 4,199 students across 71 schools: 30.3% White, 14.3% Black, 30.5% mixed-race, 5.2% Asian, 5.8% Indigenous, and 14% not reported. Gender: 50.2% male, 49.5% female, 0.3% “other.” Students attend elementary (51.5%), middle (39.3%), and high school (9.2%). Schools span all five Brazilian regions, varying by urban/rural and public/private status.
Participating schools were randomly chosen within school districts that agreed to participate in surveys for data collection. Not all students from each school participated in the survey, and participating students were not randomly selected; they were chosen by the school administration. ERI projects are not randomly assigned to schools. Instead, the survey asks school leadership whether their schools have ERI projects. When they do, these projects have been implemented based on the schools’ own initiatives rather than through an experimental assignment process.

Methods
I used multilevel models to account for students clustered within schools. For continuous outcomes (academic stress, self-concept, belonging, civic engagement), I applied multilevel linear models. For binary outcomes (self-labeling capacity/willingness and school-based whitening of students’ identities), I used logistic models. Cross-level interactions tested racial differences. All models included student and school-level controls.

Results
Students in ERI schools reported higher academic self-concept (β = 0.356, p < 0.01), civic engagement (β = 0.301, p < 0.05), and greater odds of racial self-labeling (OR = 1.648, p < 0.05). ERI initiatives were also linked to lower odds of school-based whitening of self-identified mixed-race students (OR = 0.478, p < 0.05). Findings on academic stress showed a negative trend (β = -0.198, p < 0.1), but were not statistically significant. School belonging had a non-significant negative association (β = -0.160, p > 0.05), with a notable exception: students in ERI schools reported feeling less represented by teachers (β = -0.273, p < 0.05), possibly reflecting greater student awareness of a racial mismatch between students and teachers or teachers’ racial bias. Interaction effects were mostly non-significant.

Scholarly significance
The findings reinforce the idea that school-based ERI practices offer a promising avenue for addressing racial inequality. The results overall align with international research, demonstrating that ERI development is associated with greater academic self-concept, civic engagement, and ethnic-racial self-labeling capacity/willingness. Notably, these benefits extend beyond racially marginalized students, as generally no significant interaction effects by race were observed, consistent with prior evidence that ERI development can positively impact students across different racial backgrounds, including White students (e.g., Adam et al., 2020; Wantchekon & Umaña-Taylor, 2024; Wang, 2021).
The findings also indicate that ERI projects may play a relevant role in fostering accurate recognition of students' ethnic-racial identities and reducing biases in school ethnic-racial classifications. This suggests that ERI projects may influence not only the students directly engaged in these initiatives but also educators' perceptions and awareness of students’ identities. This is particularly relevant, as fostering identity-affirming school environments requires, first and foremost, that schools accurately recognize and acknowledge students' ethnic-racial backgrounds.
This study contributes to enriching the body of literature seeking to understand youth’s psychosocial processes as culturally situated. By extending this analysis to Brazil, a context where ethnic-racial identity has been historically marginalized, this research provides new evidence on the importance of ERI education practices in societies where race is not always central to public discourse.

Author

• Julia de Oliveira Callegari, Northwestern University