Teaching-learning critical perspective: tales of an experiment

Abstract

With the present article we intend to provide a collective reflection about a teaching-learning experience, from a critical perspective, for a Stricto Sensu postgraduate course in Administration. The interest is not, however, just to report an experience, but also to try to learn from this process, contributing for new editions of the discipline. Based on the research-action method, in this article, we already reveal daily issues in the teaching-learning process of the discipline entitled "Critical Reflections on Administration", from the views and experiences of five female Professors of the Administration course. The use of the term "critical" was, in our view, a more effective alternative at that time to encompass the diversity of conceptions, experiences and theoretical and methodological anchors that characterized the identity of the group of teachers. As a theoretical framework, we emphasized elements that are common in many current debate on critical perspectives, such as the complexity of social phenomena, the question of autonomy and the importance of creativity. We adopted, therefore, a critical thinking not only in the content of the course, but also in the way it would be constructed and socialized. This was coherent with the proposal of the epistemology of complexity. In the discipline, we worked with master and doctorate students through theoretical and methodological incursions on specific themes. By the end, there were produced differentiated work involving discussed themes from the optics of each student-author group. Yet the richness of the process and its obstacles cannot only be evaluated basing on results or produced work. The use of periodic evaluations produced by students and Professors helped building the social relations configuration – including the teaching-learning processes - which involved these actors.