Capacitation of professionals in health, work and environment: an interdisciplinarity teaching approach for sustainable development

摘要

Northeastern Brazil, in particular the State of Ceará, is currently undergoing profound territorial, demographic, economic and social changes brought about the transnational movement of Globalization and Productive Restructuring. This movement may, depending on how it is dealt with, produce a serious impact on the general life quality and thus compromise the perspective of a sustainable society in the future. The Federal University of Ceará, wishing to fulfill its social function in this process, has implanted a Specialization Course in Health, Work and Environment for Sustainable Development to prepare professionals in these areas. The Course inovates by presenting a broad and complex thematic scope (the interrelations between health, work and environment), an eminently multiprofessional group of participants, and an attempt at building up a teaching-and-learning methodology with a neatly interdisciplinarity approach. This article also presents the course program, divided in four parts and disciplines. The strategies used in the practice of interdisiciplinarity are described, the difficulties are assessed and the organization of the academic production is shown.