KNOWLEDGE-POWER RELATION IN AN UNDERGRADUATE COURSE IN MEDICINE

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the utterances of the knowledge-power relations between professors and students in a medical course at a university in the south of the country. It is a qualitative investigative research based on the theoretical-methodological framework of the archaeological analysis of discourse based on Michel Foucault. Data production took place from five semi-structured interviews with professors and students of a medical course and Collegiate Minutes corresponding to the years 2002 to 2013. From discourses that demonstrate the control of time, the hierarchy in relationships, the existence of rules and institutional norms, test application and the presence of merits, we observe coercive methods of disciplinary education. A ‘political anatomy’ of control is presented, supported by disciplinary devices that subject bodies to a series of pre-established activities.