“OS SENTIDOS DA RODA”: PRÁTICAS GRUPAIS NA INVESTIGAÇÃO QUALITATIVA EM SAÚDE

Abstract

Introduction: Group practices are widely used in qualitative health research, being fundamental to produce knowledge based on the sharing of identities, territories, and knowledge. The focus group and the dialogue circle are devices and exemplary methods of qualitative research, which enhance the production of knowledge with ethics and humanization. Its uses and applications in qualitative research are diverse; Goals: The objective of this work is to reflect on the use of group practices in qualitative health research, analyzing the performance and potential of the focus group and dialogue circles with vulnerable people and communities in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil; Methods In the form of an essay, the work analyzes “the senses of the wheel” to reflect on bonding, network, techniques and group process in qualitative research in health. The essay is taken here as a form of resistance and production of collective and dialectical knowledge. A form of conversation with knowledge; Results The first reflection is in the “Construction of the wheel”, where the concepts of bonding and care in group practices are analyzed. It then moves on to “The wheel turns” to reflect on the techniques and group process in qualitative research, and finally, it analyzes “a network of wheels” through which knowledge has been produced aimed at welcoming and empowering people and communities in a situation of vulnerability. Conclusions. Group practices are powerful devices to produce knowledge in health, as they are based on the production of subjectivities, which at the same time reveal and strengthen them. The group is, so to speak, a technique and process of qualitative research that is based on the ethics and humanization of the production of knowledge involved with the transformation of reality and people. In vulnerable situations, group practices produce knowledge, while promoting acceptance and empowerment of people and communities.