Challenges, Reflections and Possibilities Experienced During the COVID-19 Pandemic Period by an Interdisciplinary Professional Doctorate Course in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil: Experience Report

The Covid-19 pandemic, which directly impacted the entire education network in a global context, also caused a process of reinvention and emergence of skills that were required in the relationships between students and teachers, from the moment that educational institutions were forced to cancel face-to-face teaching. In this sense, this article socializes and reflects on the experience lived by a team of collaborators and students of the Postgraduate Program course in Agroecology and Territorial Development (PPGADT) of the Federal Rural University of Pernambuco (UFRPE), located in the city of Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, facing the challenges imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, elaborated from participant observation conducted between March 2020 and January 2021. This is an interdisciplinary research with a qualitative approach, whose data were collected from bibliographic and documentary research, field diary, and evaluation meetings of the school semester. A systematic survey of the main difficulties faced was carried out, as well as the strategies adopted to perform the practical part of the course, required by the course regulations. The results indicate that the field immersion model proposed by PPGADT, faced with the emergency situation of remote teaching, even with many setbacks presented, is feasible and reproducible. Moreover, it generated significant reflections and learning that act in the transformation of the doctoral students.