O trabalho como princípio educativo e terapêutico em uma comunidade terapêutica (CT): práticas cotidianas e laborais como resgate de si e busca dos laços sociais

Abstract

This research aimed to analyze the impact of understanding work as an educational and therapeutic principle, through a pedagogical workshop, while supporting the reception of women living in the Therapeutic Community. The study engages with Professional and Technological Education and the informal learning spaces that emerge from the perspective of care education. It became relevant to reflect on the relationship between this territory, which, although not formally included in this teaching modality, uses work as one of the structuring axes in its therapeutic movements, exploring the relationship between work, education, and resocialization. The challenge was to understand how the elements of this educational approach can interact in this context, strained by the limits of training that occurs outside traditional school structures, highlighting the educational potential of informal and everyday itineraries. Thus, the discussion of work as an educational and therapeutic principle presents itself as a possible means for understanding the formative dimensions present in everyday experience, observing legislation, theoretical aspects of education, and the very logic of how the therapeutic community operates as an educational space. The research used a qualitative methodology centered on cartography, which allowed us to capture the subjective and relational expressions of the residents in their daily lives, observing how daily activities can reframe trajectories marked by vulnerability and drug addiction. Thus, participatory observation techniques and institutional document analysis were used, and throughout the data collection, nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with the residents, aged between 19 and 50, regardless of educational level. This facilitated the construction of narratives that highlight the challenges and potential of this context. Thus, the Laços de Recomeço workshop represents the embodiment of the Educational Product, a support device aimed at residents in the process of reconstructing meanings, aiming to broaden their reflections on work by fostering a "space-time" for learning, experimentation, and emotional connection. The results indicate that productive action, when reframed therapeutically and pedagogically, strengthens the processes of personal transformation and social reintegration. The study also contributes to the field o f Professional and Technological Education by expanding the understanding of educational practices outside the formal model, highlighting that work, when intentionally guided by pedagogical and humanistic principles, can generate comprehensive development, autonomy, and civic participation. Furthermore, it challenges the traditional logic of the structural duality of education by demonstrating that learning by doing in real-life situations has genuine and transformative formative value, thereby achieving the research objectives.