A universidade e a questão do conhecimento – O currículo acadêmico na perspectiva da inter/transdisciplinaridade e da ecologia de saberes

Abstract

Modern science has vindicated for itself the task of coordinating the development of humanity, assuming the nontransferable power of legitimizing or not all knowledge. Many institutions, especially educational, were established with the important task of transmitting to future generations the heritage of systematic scientific knowledge, relating it to the current social needs of each historical period. Among these institutions, the university is in the forefront. However, the university has long suffered certain mismatch between the new social practices and the knowledge it develops. At the same time, the old social problems demand urgent attention: hunger, misery, social injustices, predominance of economically stronger cultures over others. At present, the university is located in a position both to rethink its bases, as well as to be active in the process, contributing to the consolidation of a new paradigm of knowledge. The aim of this study is therefore to understand how this university in transformation is handling the construction of knowledge, especially with regard to interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary dialogue, linking them with traditional knowledge, constituting an Ecology of Knowledge, postulated by Boaventura de Sousa Santos. Our working hypothesis was that, included in this paradigmatic transition process, it is possible for the university another kind of epistemological dynamics, favoring integration between science and traditional knowledge, present in the cultural diversity of the world. To answer this question we anchored methodologically in the qualitative approach with the assumptions of ethnographic approach. Having the Case Study as a method, we investigate the experience of a group located in the Medical School, Public Health Department, Federal University of Ceará, entitled Núcleo Tramas. For data collection, we used field observation with note taking, semi-structured interviews, and focus group technique. In our findings, we detected that the movement in the group work that generates interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary dialogue occurs naturally, driven by the complexity raised by reality: the sciences, the chosen authors, traditional knowledge, methodological decisions emerge from the struggles undertaken. It was also evidenced that the academic and traditional knowledge have the same degree of importance in the process, although social scientific knowledge is most valued. It was clear that the group and the communities in their territories hold different perspectives of time and production, collectively directing their own knowledge construction. The Tramas thus has the role of promoting the sociology of absences and emergencies (Sousa Santos). Based on our findings, our working hypothesis was proven as a thesis: that other knowledge is possible for the university, developed and molded in the knowledge integration processes in dialogic relations and, therefore, with great emancipatory potential.