“Practical and reflexive” challenges for occupational therapy’s undergraduate courses in pandemic times

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to the adoption of measures that bring about changes in the routine and organization of work in universities. The virtual environments have been considered vectors for undergraduate courses during the pandemic, and it is necessary to reflect on this new context. The Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa em Terapia Ocupacional – RENETO (National Network of Education and Research in Occupational Therapy), Brazil, attentive to the issues involved in the formation and production of knowledge in the field, has been searching with peers for ways to carry out a complex reading of reality and, from this, create and implement strategies to be able to deal with the demands imposed, respecting the regionalities and institutional nature in which the undergraduate courses are running on. Thus, based on a survey carried out with the coordinators of Occupational Therapy courses, which aimed to understand how the undergraduate courses have adhered or not to teaching through digital platforms, this paper reflects on decision making about pedagogical, ethical, and political dimensions in the scope of academic activities not only in the context of the pandemic, but also considering the projections of the new reality imposed by the pandemic.