Abstract
The objective of the study was to analyze the process of establishment of Continuing Education in Health, identifying its transformations, continuities and ruptures in the socio-historic context from the 1970s to 2005. The study is based on the theoretical-methodological framework of the Critical Analysis of Discourse. Based on the interviews made with the representatives of the development and management of the Continuing Education in Health policy in different historic moments, we attempted to understand the context, the texts and the social actors that compose the discourse in each period of time. The results indicate a process characterized by continuities and ruptures, and influenced by the ideologies that mark the discourse variations in each different period. Therefore, the discourses regarding the centrality of the work, with its demands for professionalization, qualification and training, coexist with the discourses regarding the centrality of the individual and with their need to know and learn in and with everyday life. We understand that Continuing Education in Health in Brazil is going through a process of reconfiguration under certain political, ideological and epistemological influences.
continuing education; Unified Health System; public policies