Virtual potential-proximal spaces: report of educational experience in times of the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

It reports the activities developed, in a university extension program, to face the challenges of the physical distance imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the creation of "Potential-proximate spaces". The objective report the authors' experiences in conducting the course " Potential-proximate spaces: reports of teaching experiences in Covid-19 pandemics times". The technological/virtual resources employed were available and used in the group's research, at undergraduate and graduate levels. The referred course sought to establish dialogues between the theoretical-methodological references of Winnicottian Psychoanalysis and Vygotskian Psychology which, despite their specificities, present themselves as exponents in the study of human development. The course was developed through synchronous and asynchronous activities, which culminated in the elaboration of interpretative syntheses, in conjunction with students and professors, with levels of complexity and deepening of the historical development of the conceptual propositions of the two authors studied. It resulted in the identification of approximations of potentiating relationships arising from interactions and experiences in the vygotskian Proximal/Imminent Development Zone and the winnicottian potencial spaces/environments; as well as conceptions of art and creativity as genuine, social and historical creative potentialities. In addition, the distance from epistemological bases with a more social or more individual aspect is highlighted and, finally, it suggests questions about the possibility of articulation between the Winnicottian conception of the innate vital and potential tendency to maturation, and the Vygotskian human potential with historical and social characteristics. The repercussions focus on the movement of articulation of different matrices of thought, moving away from the culture, in the field of Psychology, of distancing between different theoretical-methodological strands. Finally, it reflects on the planning of strategies to face and transpose the issues presented by the pandemic scenario to the maintenance of academic activities.