Collaborative autoethnography in pandemic times: A therapeutic and decolonial teachinglearning experience

Abstract

This collaborative autoethnography aimed to understand the experience of three students in an Autoethnography course in a graduate program at the Minas Gerais Federal University School of Pharmacy during the initial stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. To this end, the students’ field journals and autoethnographic data - such as texts, poems, photographs, audio and video files with performances or dance - were analysed. The study highlighted multiple therapeutic and decolonial facets of autoethnography that arise from its metacognitive practice. This course humanized the academic environment, providing interconnectivity of conventional sciences with arts and culture. This research points out the benefits of including autoethnography in the training of health professionals as its critical and reflective features promote cultural and humanistic competences useful to person-centered care, which are very relevant to pharmacists.