Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Returning to the debate on the origins of competencies in pedagogy and to the possibility of giving it a new meaning by subordinating it to the concept of qualification as social relation, this paper investigates the possibility of this notion becoming the basis for the construction of a counter-hegemonic pedagogy. This investigation is carried out through an analysis of the possible relations between the pedagogy of competencies, the neo-pragmatism and the so-called radical constructivism, all of which may be generating a post-modern epistemology, coherent with some contemporary trends in the Philosophy of Education and with implications for pedagogical theories. By demonstrating that these trends deny the objectivity of knowledge, thus admitting relativism and subjectivism, we conclude that the construction of a counter-hegemonic pedagogy must go beyond the principles that give a meaning to the notion of competency and turn to the notion of work as an educational principle under the historical-critical perspective of social relations.

This text is part of the research entitled "The Education of the Productive Citizen" (A Formação do Cidadão Produtivo), the objective of which is to analyse the 1980s' policies on technical secondary teaching as well as the educational reforms that occurred in the 1990s. It is noted that, although many notions and concepts - such as work, productive worker, citizenship, productive citizen and emancipation - may have a specific meaning in the ideological debates on globalisation or on the 'mondialization du capital' they can be used in alternative societal forms if rescued in their historicity. The notion of citizenship, if we see it as part of an emancipating project, presents some obstacles in relation to democracy and to the liberal conception of work. Both in the liberal meaning of citizenship as an individual's civil, political and social rights, and in the Marxian meaning, as collective citizenship, the term involves certain demands that, in Brazil, were not fulfilled by the historically restrictive form of insertion of the Brazilian citizens into the political community. They are also far from being fulfilled by the present educational reforms in the technical secondary teaching with their short modular courses and a reduction of knowledge and of skills to mere operational issues, to values guided by individualism and by the competitiveness demanded by the business world.

Our objective here is to analyze the contemporary changes in the world of work and their effect - or their impact - on the work processes in the area of health. The theoretical reference for this analysis is a specific stream of studies on work developed in Brazil in the area of collective health. Starting from the assumption that work and social needs are consubstantial, the analysis deepens the investigation of the work processes and their constitutive elements, as well as of the inter-subjective and ethical-moral dimensions of the production of health services. Having considered, on the one hand, the complexity of the work objects in the area of health - that demand both a vertical increase in specialized knowledge and the horizontal integration of that knowledge - ; and, on the other, the introduction of new organizational/managerial models and the constant presence of technological innovation and incorporation, we observed significant changes in the work processes, including, among others, the multi-professional and interdisciplinary character of health practices, the re-dimensioning of professional autonomy in the face of a need to recompose specialized work, and the need to provide all health workers with better and permanent professional qualifications, both in its technical and in its ethical-political and communicational dimensions.

The objective of this article is to discuss the emergence of the World Health Organization (WHO) as an international specialized agency. It also debates how the organization operates, major historic and political landmarks and its strategies in the struggle for hegemony in the international sanitary scenario. For such, we researched WHO's documents, directors-general's speeches, texts introducing the institution, articles and editorials. Two specific moments were of fundamental influence to WHO's international health policies: The program Health for All (2000) and the policies fostered by the Gro-Brundtland administration (1998-2002). In this period, not only profound transformations in international health policies were undertaken, but also, the need to establish political and methodological links to the globalization of the economy and the global health policies emerged.

This essay analyses the contemporary forms of capitalism, turning to the mirages put forward by the entertainment industry and by the mass images as well as to the culturalist, relativist and populist streams of post-modern thought. We will attempt to show how these variations on the theme of blindness weaken the critical tradition built by previous generations in Brazil and in the world.

The aim of this essay is to discuss the concept of labour, having at reference the Critical Social Theory. The concepts of praxis, sacrifice and domination are also examined.

This work deals with the issue of the academic orientation of secondary school pupils that are taking part in the Scientific Vocation Programme (Provoc). Created in 1986 by Fiocruz, Provoc established itself as an educational model for the early stages of scientific learning. Its work in this field has gone beyond the limits of the Manguinhos campus in Rio de Janeiro and spread to a number of other research institutions in this country. The objective here is to put forward a proposal for an institutional project in which researchers from well known scientific institutions will provide guidance for those young people that have not yet made their professional choices. The strategic relevance of this type of institutional programme has encouraged a large number of the Programme's researchers-tutors to reflect upon issues and problems that - so far - had only been approached by educational experts. The ensuing discussions have often led to the formulation of pedagogical proposals that can be assessed by the very actors involved in the process of the Programme's consolidation and expansion. It is not a question of analysing the quantitative results per se, but the arguments that have guided the researchers' actions. We will be attempting to understand both the general principles that guided Provoc's institutionalisation, and how, why and in which specific cultural contexts the concepts of scientific initiation at the Secondary Level may be built.