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Brazil's Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde, SUS) is rooted in the 1988 Citizen's Constitution. Universal health reforms, inspired by Freire's legacy of popular education, embody the struggle within Brazilian society against authoritarianism and inequality, and for democratization. "Controle social" (the participation of the public in management and oversight) is a key principle governing the system. It is a broad term that encompasses government accountability to communities, health self-agency, community participation, and local empowerment. "Controle social" is institutionalized through Health Councils, which are set up at the local, municipal, state, and national levels. This article examines the experiences of the Health Education League, a project that brought together medical students from the Federal University of Rio Grande and residents of the Barra fishing community, and used Freirean principles to co-construct knowledge and empowerment in health. It describes the community's efforts to establish a participatory local Health Council as a means of improving primary care and embedding the right to health. These efforts at empowerment succeeded in establishing a Strategic Family Health Basic Health Unit in the community, however "controle social" through a local Health Council has yet to be fully attained. In this case, popular education represented a qualitative key that "unlocked both sides of the door" to reciprocally empower communities and student health practitioners.

Higher education has been strongly contested in recent times, on the grounds of its role in reproducing epistemic injustice, leading to calls to 'decolonise' institutions, curricula and teaching practices. Meanwhile, the practice of epistemic critique also points to potentials for challenge, learning and change. This article offers critical reflections in two distinct moments of time: firstly, reflections on experiences of a cross-site teaching project (2016) involving three of the authors (Mucha, Pesch and Wielenga) from the Departments of Political Science at the Universities of Düsseldorf (Germany) and Pretoria (South Africa) in an academic virtual collaboration project using shared classes and video-conferencing tools to study peace-building, human mobility and mediation. Secondly, the writing process for this article has involved a further collaborative author (Khoo) to comment upon and theorise curriculum-making and teaching experiences. We look at the different contexts in each country and how far the curricula and syllabi at both universities can be supplemented by cross-site teaching elements to deal with epistemic asymmetries in higher education reflexively, while leaning towards a more just knowledge (re)production. Some key challenges and limitations of the cross-site project are also discussed. ; https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/aa/index ; pm2020 ; Political Sciences

Higher education has been strongly contested in recent times, on the grounds of its role in reproducing epistemic injustice, leading to calls to 'decolonise' institutions, curricula and teaching practices. Meanwhile, the practice of epistemic critique also points to potentials for challenge, learning and change. This article offers critical reflections in two distinct moments of time: firstly, reflections on experiences of a cross-site teaching project (2016) involving three of the authors (Mucha, Pesch and Wielenga) from the Departments of Political Science at the Universities of Düsseldorf (Germany) and Pretoria (South Africa) in an academic virtual collaboration project using shared classes and video-conferencing tools to study peace-building, human mobility and mediation. Secondly, the writing process for this article has involved a further collaborative author (Khoo) to comment upon and theorise curriculum-making and teaching experiences. We look at the different contexts in each country and how far the curricula and syllabi at both universities can be supplemented by cross-site teaching elements to deal with epistemic asymmetries in higher education reflexively, while leaning towards a more just knowledge (re)production. Some key challenges and limitations of the cross-site project are also discussed.

AbstractThe pandemic affected more than 1.5 billion students and youth, and the most vulnerable learners were hit hardest, making digital inequality in educational settings impossible to overlook. Given this reality, we, all educators, came together to find ways to understand and address some of these inequalities. As a product of this collaboration, we propose a methodological toolkit: a theoretical kaleidoscope to examine and critique the constitutive elements and dimensions of digital inequalities. We argue that such a tool is helpful when a critical attitude to examine 'the ideology of digitalism', its concomitant inequalities, and the huge losses it entails for human flourishing seems urgent. In the paper, we describe different theoretical approaches that can be used for the kaleidoscope. We give relevant examples of each theory. We argue that the postdigital does not mean that the digital is over, rather that it has mutated into new power structures that are less evident but no less insidious as they continue to govern socio-technical infrastructures, geopolitics, and markets. In this sense, it is vital to find tools that allow us to shed light on such invisible and pervasive power structures and the consequences in the daily lives of so many.

Systems‐based approaches to societal problem‐solving entail a capacity to synthesise our knowledge and skills such that we can resolve shared problems. However, the increasing range of knowledge specialisms, scientific and engineering methods, and skill profiles at the population‐level challenges solidarity. It is also difficult to identify unifying goals and establish sustainable educational infrastructures that support transdisciplinary teamwork. Drawing upon the collective intelligence of a multidisciplinary group, this paper highlights challenges to integrating content expertise and methodological expertise in team‐based efforts to address complex social issues. Challenges identified include the following: stakeholder participation, heterogeneity and conflict, supporting effective group dynamics, defining goals, planning and resourcing, resistance and fears amongst group members, and the absence of effective teamwork methodologies. A systems model developed by the group helped to clarify interdependencies between challenges. We conclude by highlighting the need to develop societal infrastructures supporting our capacity for teamwork into the future. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Introduction: Planetary health (PH) has emerged as a leading field for raising awareness, debating, and finding solutions for the health impacts of human-caused disruptions to Earth's natural systems. PH education addresses essential questions of how humanity inhabits Earth, and how humans affect, and are affected by, natural systems. A pilot massive open online course (MOOC) in PH was created in Brazil in 2020. This MOOC capitalized on the global online pivot, to make the course accessible to a broader audience. This study describes the process of course creation and development and assesses the impact evaluation data and student outcomes of the PH MOOC. Methods: The PH MOOC pilot was launched in Brazilian Portuguese, using the TelessaúdeRS-UFRGS platform on 4/27/2020 and concluded on 7/19/2020 with a total load of 80 h. It was composed of 8 content modules, pre and post-test, 10 topics in a forum discussion, and an optional action plan. This study analyzes the course database, profile of participants, answers to questionnaires, forum interaction, and action plans submitted. Results: Two thousand seven hundred seventy-seven participants enrolled in the course, of which 1,237 (44.54%) gave informed consent for this study. Of the 1,237 participants who agreed to participate in the research, 614 (49.8%) completed the course, and 569 (92.67%) were accredited by TelessaúdeRS-UFRGS. The majority of the participants were concerned with climate change, trained in the health area, and worked in primary health care in places that lacked ongoing sustainability programs. Two hundred forty-one action plans were submitted, major topics identified were food and nutrition, infectious diseases, and garbage and recycling. Discussion: The use of the PH lens and open perspective of the course centered the need to communicate planetary health topics to individuals. The local plans reflected the motto of "think global and act local." Brazil presents a context of an unprecedented social, political, and environmental crisis, with ...

EPDF and EPUB available Open Access under CC-BY-NC-ND licence. Though a globally shared experience, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected societies across the world in radically different ways. This book examines the unique implications of the pandemic in the Global South. With international contributors from a variety of disciplines including health, economics and geography, the book investigates the pandemic's effects on development, medicine, gender (in)equality and human rights, among other issues. Its analysis illuminates further subsequent crises of interconnection, a pervasive health provision crisis and a resulting rise in socioeconomic inequality. The book's assessment offers an urgent discourse on the ways in which the impact of COVID-19 can be mitigated in some of the most challenging socioeconomic contexts in the world