The Case of Escola Eleva and the Janelas Abertas Scholarship Program: De/reterritorializing Elite Notions of a Brazilian International School

Abstract

This empirical case study considers the experience of scholarship students participating in the Janelas Abertas program from 2017 to 2022 at Escola Eleva, an elite international school in Rio de Janeiro. Using ethnographically-inspired methods and an assemblage theory framework, the study challenges dominant narratives about elite schooling by analyzing how racially and socioeconomically diverse scholarship students both shaped and were shaped by the school community. Narrative interviews with scholarship recipients reveal interconnected individual and collective transformation organized around three themes: confronting racism, fostering economic solidarity, and (re)affirming identities. The findings show that the students were integral to an assemblage that de/reterritorialized traditional notions of an elite school. This case contributes to research on racial and socioeconomic diversity in private international schools by offering a Brazilian example in which scholarship students were not passive markers of diversity but were conscious of the political and social significance of their belonging to the school.