Caminhar com as Epistemologias do Sul: alternativa ao legado do colonialismo na formação em saúde

Abstract

This essay aims to question and reflect on the legacy of colonialism in university health courses and to introduce Epistemologies of the South as a counter-hegemonic alternative to education in this field. Its goal is to contribute to a series of reflections about this legacy, represented by the hegemony of scientific and instrumental rationality, and the consequent devaluation and delegitimization of endogenous, grassroots and traditional knowledge about health, disease and care. It outlines pathways to education that favour dialogue between scientific and non-scientific knowledge, towards theoretical, educational and methodological openness to epistemic diversity beyond science, encompassing the senses, knowledge of the body and sensitive experience. It concludes with the need to expand and reframe our understanding of the health-disease-care process, based on dialogue with knowledge anchored in epistemic diversity, aimed at the emergence of health professionals capable of practicing critical and dialogical science, which is also empathic, and permeable to other rationalities, knowledge and practices.