Reflective portfolio: Philosophical contributions to a narrative praxis in medical education

Abstract

The Reflective Portfolio has been used as an evaluation tool to stimulate critical and reflective thinking and create conditions for the exercise of an ethical sense in medical education. This essay aims to analyze the Reflective Portfolio as a pedagogical device for the exercise of narrative in medicine. By producing a theoretical analysis about the portfolio, we have built an epistemological dialogue between Public Health, Education and Philosophy, in order to provide elements to think about the exercise of fundamental relational technologies for health care. Hannah Arendt’s Philosophy potentiates this study, addressing the narrative action in a political perspective. Teacher and student (reader and narrator) establish a dialogue through portfolios, unveilling developments to bring new pedagogical meanings to the Reflective Portfolio.