The field of education: possible contributions of occupational therapy in Brazil

Abstract

This work analysis the need of social interventions based on education and on citizenship rights, and directed towards adolescents and youngsters in a situation of social vulnerability; our particular focus is the Brazilian public school. Project METUIA has worked in the construction of theoretical bases for the elaboration of therapeutical-occupational programs in the social area, as well as in its practical experimentation. Taking as a reference the experiences and studies developed by the UFSCar Nucleus of Project METUIA, with regard to the violence in and of the public school, especially the high school, we discuss the desirable contribution of occupational therapy to the whole cycle of basic education. We assume that the occupational therapy practices have an interconnection with what the corresponding professionals think, with their opinions and attitudes before the social matters presented to them; the methods that they employ are conditioned to the way they understand reality and their own responsibility before it - those aspects, in turn, have a strong influence upon the nature of the solutions that those professionals are capable to propose. Inequality and poverty are important elements in the Brazilian social context, which demand an urgent revision of professional roles in our country.