Arts and training in occupational therapy: experiences and narratives of university students in times of pandemic

Abstract

This research proposes an analysis of the importance of art in academic training, through the experience of students in the third term of the undergraduate course in Occupational Therapy at the Federal University of São Paulo, in the ART module – Art and Body, in the first semester of 2020. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, through virtual platforms, bodily and artistic practices were mobilized for the individual and collective care of the group, focusing on dynamics that involved the construction of the presence of bodies in a situation of techno-mediated classes. For this, games, body dynamics, proposals with different artistic languages were used that aimed to promote encounter, building trust, affection and acceptance in response to what each person experienced during that period of physical distancing and its countless effects. The objective was to record and analyze the importance of the arts in the training process in the ART – Body Art module through virtual platforms, in times of pandemic. This is a qualitative, retrospective research, which uses the cartography method, and which sought to analyze the field diaries of the virtual meetings prepared by the studentresearcher, which were composed of her experiences as a participant in the module and also by her focus on the experience of the group of students. Photographic records, writings and recordings of classes were also analyzed. We understand that the bodily and artistic practices that were part of the module could contribute to the elaboration of the moment of the pandemic and enabled the creation of a space of care, expressiveness, affection and learning in the individual and collective dimensions.