A história da educação superior na América Latina e o desafio integracionista da Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana (UNILA)

Abstract

Latin America was dominated by Europeans for centuries. Since the arrival of the first European at America, culture, language, religion and education were dominated. The use of physical and ideological violence was a remark at that time of original people domination. The strategy used by the European conquerors, during the colonization, was the implementation of the metropolis model in the American continent. Politics, architecture, urbanization, religion, culture and education were recreated in the Latin America. The not-Europeans were left outside this process. The present work will make an historical review of Latin America showing how was the relationship between Europeans and original people during the colonial period. The education in the American colonial territories of Portugal and Spain will, also, be focused with emphasis on Latin-American university genesis. More than five hundred years passed since the Colombus arrival, and, apparently, not much was changed of the elitism and high valorization of external model in detriment of the regional issues. Some movements that had the Latin-America integration as goal occurred in the area, as for example: the integration by Símon Bolivar and the MERCOSUL. Those movements were constituted counter-hegemonic actions in Latin-America. But, recently, can the creation of the Universidade Federal da Integração Latino-Americana (UNILA) by Brazilian government be considered a counter-hegemonic action? The work will seek to answer those and other questions inherent to the higher education issue, like the distinct integration concepts and possible counter-hegemonic movements in Latin-America.