The Experience of Coordinating an Undergraduate Course in Psychology in Northeastern Brazil

The general objective of this study is to narrate the experience of coordinating an undergraduate course in psychology in the northeastern Brazilian hinterland based on a cartographic perspective. Specifically, this study aims to describe the cartographic perspective as a possibility of scientific research, reflect on the challenges on implementing and managing an undergraduate course in psychology in the northeastern hinterland, describe the strategies developed on the coordination and management of the course, and thematize the segmental lines from the experience of the researcher/coordinator during the pandemic. This study emerges from the concerns and comings and goings along roads that took me to the Northeast on a weekly basis and that made me think about the difficulties faced in this management task. In line with the cartographic perspective, we adopted some of the theoretical contributions proposed by Deleuze and Guattari, especially the concept of rhizome. The main resource used to produce data refers to logbooks, from which we prepared a narrative text. Facing the encountered challenges and overcoming difficulties opened the researcher’s personal and professional development, as well as those of the professors and students involved in the teaching-learning process. The geographic distance, the hiring of a qualified and committed faculty, the success in attracting and retaining students, the consolidation of the services offered by the School Clinic, and the evaluation of Brazilian Ministry of Education for the recognition of the course were the main challenges faced on this route.

Keywords:
Academic Coordination; North Eastern Backlands; Psychology; Cartography