Critical reflections about decolonial practices in academia: contributions and challenges in the education process of the occupational therapy students

Abstract

This article invites us to reflect about the decolonial practices developed within the academia, based on my experience as an assistant in the Psychosocial Support Program of the School of Occupational Therapy at the University of Santiago de Chile, situated in the ongoing debates of occupational therapies from the global south. The objective of the article is to rethink the social relations that occur inside the university, in order to deconstruct and resignify the assumptions of the colonial modern-project that conditions us as a university community. From an analytical perspective of decoloniality, this article analyzes the role of the university, the notion of social unease and the possibilities of a decolonial and liberating practice in the university, especially as experienced by students. Therefore, it is important to reflect on whether it is possible to establish psychosocial support programs that contribute to this task, keeping in mind that the university reproduces modern colonial-rationality. The conclusion is that it is possible to create spaces for support and community coexistence through the humanization and decolonization of relational forms, constructing other responses to social unease while unveiling the implications of modern colonial-order in the daily lives of the student community.

Keywords:
Universities; Psychosocial Support Systems; Occupational Therapy