EDITORIAL
When we reflect upon education or health care in a philsophical dimension, it becomes possible to compare them to the myth of Sisyphus. Immense effort in order to arrive at the top, only for it to never be reached. It is allurement to imagine that education and/in/or health care rhymes with plentitude. There are unattainable goods in such an idealized perspective. Even thus, in the world of education, highlighting education in health care, or that which is popular in health care, we cannot deny Sisyphus. If we do not continue "to roll the stone of educations" in health care "up the mountain", invariably we would succumb to its massive weight.
Currently, humanity is passing through a planetary crisis, full of interrogations and perplexities. One asks oneself what has brought us to this condition and how we may free ourselves from it. We can say that we have broken nearly all our contracts of living together with life. First, with the animals and the plants. Then, with the forests, the rivers, the seas, the air, and principally with our own species. There is but one solution: educating ourselves in health care, as our greater good, including care in the web of life in its diversity of manifestations and interdependence. In this sense, it becomes necessary to reflect upon the educational possibility for health care and life in a worldwide perspective starting from ourselves, with others, which has been expressed by Paulo Freire. Only life education is capable of extrapolating the verification and making intervention possible. We educate ourselves or we perish! However, it is not enough that we verify educational needs, it is necessary to intervene. Popular education in health care, in its ample definition, is outlined as the possibility to for collective consciousness of the changes that emerge. In this direction, considering its trajectory with humanity, sensibility, and commitment, Nursing is challenged to contribute in overcoming one of the principle grievances with the sustainability of life. With that, we interpret that two important challenges have emerged as two categories: one, pedagogical; the other, political. The pedagogical challenge refers to the conscience that its praxis is ever educational as long as it permits dialogue capable of promoting mutual inclusion, transcending marginalized humanity. It is necessary to promote pedagogical educational practices in health care that make participation, cooperation, and interdependence possible, a popular education which contemplates the sociability and responsibility all have with life, with peace, and with the possibilities to dream a dream in the future. It is not the past yet, perhaps it will be the future, this pedagogical proposal of "educating-oneself", of "learning from": with the other, with nature, with plants, with fauna, and with other forms of energy that compose the web of life. According to this perspective, there is the challenge for the construction of educational practices with the participation of the subjects of the actions, respecting their vision of the world and their knowledge. The defense of educational material that respects culture and popular knowledge becomes necessary, so that health care may be considered a device for the construction of subjectivities which contribute towards the constitution of citizen-subjects.
Popular education in health care, through its own history, represents a polical movement in search of more dignified and respectful relationships among people, institutions, and the environment. The political challenge of Nursing, especially in Brazil, refers to intervening in that which is verified. What are the possibilities of maintaining alit the educational flame in health care with the popular universe? What presents itself and what stands out? There are articulations, networks, tents, associations, conferences, meetings, and virtual meetings. According to that which one can perceive at such events, Brazilian Nursing is responsible for the genesis and sustenance of the majority of actions and organizations which objectify popular education for a better life among individuals, the country, and the planet.
This edition of Text & Context Nursing gathers articles which debate the pedagogical and political process of popular education in health care, through the report of teaching activities, research, and attention to health care, in which nurses are the key players. Let it be praised for taking the initiative for inclusion of a theme with national and international relevance.
Prof. Dr. Antonio de Miranda Wosny
− Associated Professor of the Nursing Departament and the Post-Graduate Program in Nursing at Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). Vice-Coordinator of the Nucleus for Extension and Research in Nursing at Popular Education and Health Care (NEPEPS/UFSC) −
Prof.ª Dr.ª Astrid Eggert Boehs
− Associated Professor of the Nursing Departament and the Post-Graduate Program in Nursing at Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC). Coordinator of the Nucleus for Extension and Research in Nursing at Popular Education and Health Care (NEPEPS/UFSC) −
Publication Dates
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Publication in this collection
13 Sept 2007 -
Date of issue
June 2007
