The relationship between a critical education and the transformation in the praxis of the Unified Health System workers

Critical education and the praxis of workers: contributions to the Brazilian Public Health System

Abstract

This article presents the results of a scientific literature review and discusses the relationship between education and work in Public Health, emphasizing a reflection on the contributions of critical education to the transformation of workers' praxis in the Unified Health System. Strained by debates between the scientific fields of Public Health and Collective Health, this analysis is based on the concepts of liberating education, praxis and social transformation derived from critical theory. It seeks to answer the following questions: i) How is the relationship between education and work in Public Health addressed in our domestic scientific production? ii) How can critical knowledge contribute to transforming the practice of health workers? The bibliographical survey was carried out in the main databases of the area and included scientific articles in Portuguese, Spanish and English, published between the years 2000 and 2020. Initially, 4,671 documents were found, and, after applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 22 papers were selected to compose the analysis corpus. The results were organized into three thematic categories: the tension between the scientific fields of Public Health and Collective Health; the required attributes for a critical formation; the potential of this pedagogical approach in transforming praxis. A process of paradigmatic renewal in Public Health education was identified, induced by the incorporation of knowledge produced by the areas of Social and Human Sciences, increasing the demand for a critical education that considers all social and human complexity involved in phenomena related to health and life.