The HUKA KATU† Project – School of Dentistry of Ribeirão Preto at the Xingu Indigenous Park

Abstract

For many years, the educational formation of health professionals, including dentists, was not guided by the critical understanding of the population’s needs in terms of oral health. The country’s educational model (Universities) became disassociated from the Brazilian reality, and consequently not committed to the promotion of oral health. The School of Dentistry of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo (FORP-USP), during the collective construction of its pedagogical project, has been aware of the current regulations of the many documents elaborated by the Ministry of Education (Curricular Guidelines for dental schools) and Ministry of Health (National Policy for Oral Health and National Policy for Attention to the Health of Indigenous People). In order to perform their role of transformation, Universities must understand the new “Learning Setting” as a broad concept that concerns not only the place in which techniques are performed, but also the population involved, nature and the content of what is being performed. It concerns, therefore, the incorporation and the interrelation of didactic and pedagogical methods, areas of practice and experiences, use of technologies and abilities associated to the cognitive and psychomotor domains. It also includes the valorization of moral and ethical principles which guide individual and collective conducts. The new FORP-USP Curricula presents growing complexity and proposes integration with greater flexibility. It is within this context that we propose the presentation of the Optional Internship (Oral Health at the Xingu Park - FORP/USP) offered to dental students, characterized as a process capable of contributing to the reorganization of oral health practice and conceptions, providing a new work process with the main goal of promoting health care.