Virtual Postgraduate on Research

Paradigms: A Cuban Experience in

Times of Pandemic

Postgrado virtual sobre paradigmas de

investigación: una experiencia cubana

en tiempos de pandemia

Rosa María Medina Borges*

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3592-1745

Santiago de Cuba, La Havane / Cuba

Dianelys Hernández Chisholm**

http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7482-1907

Santiago de Cuba, La Havane / Cuba

* Ph. D. in Pedagogical Sciences. Master in Contemporary History. Postdoctorate in Social Sciences, Child-

hood, and Youth. University of Medical Sciences of Havana, Cuba. Email: rosimedina2002@gmail.com

** Ph. D. in Medical Education Sciences. University of Medical Sciences of Havana, Cuba. Email: diachis-

holm@infomed.sld.cu

Received: May/12/2023 Reviewed: May/25/2023 Accepted: July/21/2023 Published: January/10/2024

Revista Digital de Investigación y Postgrado, 5(9), 25-41

ISSN electrónico: 2665-038X

To cite: Medina, B. R. M. & Hernández, C. D. (2024). Virtual Postgraduate on Research Paradigms:

a cuban experience in times of pandemic. Revista Digital de Investigación y Postgrado, 5(9), 25-41.

https://doi.org/10.59654/ayrx4j46

Abstract

The article aims to assess the relevance of the postgraduate course on research paradigms in

times of Covid 19, carried out at the Medical University of Havana between May-July 2021. From

a qualitative approach, the emergencies that led to the design of the postgraduate course were

systematized. from virtuality. The interweaving of positions and approaches of numerous authors

about the events related to the aforementioned disease is addressed, as well as the awareness

of the need to rethink the research paradigms in the face of the global health emergency. The

validity of the experience allows its continuity and improvement.

Keywords: research paradigms, science, education, virtuality, pandemic.

Resumen

El artículo se propone valorar la pertinencia del postgrado sobre paradigmas de investigación

en tiempos de la Covid 19, realizado en la Universidad Médica de la Habana entre mayo-julio

del 2021. Desde un enfoque metodológico cualitativo, se sistematizaron las urgencias que con-

llevaron al diseño del postgrado desde la virtualidad. Se aborda el entretejido de posiciones y

enfoques de numerosos(as) autores(as) acerca de los acontecimientos vinculados a la mencio-

nada enfermedad, así como la toma de conciencia sobre la necesidad de repensar los para-

digmas investigativos ante la emergencia sanitaria global. La validez de la experiencia permite

su continuidad y mejoramiento.

Palabras clave: paradigmas de investigación, ciencia, educación de postgrado, virtualidad, pandemia.

Introduction

A coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2, of beautiful and extravagant appearance, burst onto the

scene in 2020 to steal the spotlight of planetary life. As if all the problems of the globalized

world were summed up in it (Medina, 2021a). In the opinion of Maldonado (2021a), the pande-

mic crisis once again made it evident that there are unforeseen phenomena in health matters,

and these cannot and should not be neglected. Covid-19 took everyone by surprise; not even

the best scientists in the world saw it coming. Neither were there, at first, vaccines or definitive

solutions for the global health crisis that had occurred.

Such events once again put at the center of debates the issue related to the validity of scientific

paradigms. This matter is of vital importance for research (in the search for drugs and techno-

logies for the treatment of symptoms and sequelae of the disease). By then, the debate on pa-

radigms permeated all spheres of social life, particularly education (in its pedagogical and

didactic dimensions).

There were many questions in a short time: How prepared were we, the medical university tea-

chers, to understand the pandemic crisis from the sciences? How to prepare ourselves in record

26 Rosa María Medina Borges and Dianelys Hernández Chisholm

Virtual Postgraduate Course on Research Paradigms:

a cuban experience in times of pandemic

Revista Digital de Investigación y Postgrado, 5(9), 25-41

ISSN electrónico: 2665-038X

time to research and publish from the respective areas of knowledge? How to assume the im-

pacts generated and continue the formative processes from virtuality?

The article presents the proposal for a virtual postgraduate course on the need to rethink re-

search paradigms in the face of new emerging realities resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.

An evaluative analysis is made of the technological supports available for its teaching, the con-

tents addressed, the main didactic and scientific proposals made by the participating teachers

in its first edition. A final feedback is provided. The experience took place at the University of

Medical Sciences of Havana (UCMH), in its Faculty of Health Technology (FATESA).

Cuban medical education occupies a leading place in the Latin American continent as it trains

Cuban professionals and those of other nationalities to practice social medicine, through training

in various higher health technicians and more than ten university degrees (medicine, stomato-

logy, nursing, physical therapy and rehabilitation, hygiene and epidemiology, health information

systems, among others).

Cuban medical education is recognized for applying the guiding principle of education in work

and for work, during the student stage, and with the provision of health services within Cuba and

internationally. Due to the variety of specialties offered, it is institutionalized in 13 faculties, and the

teaching staff is in turn very heterogeneous in terms of specialties and academic training.

It is important to highlight that at the time of delivering the postgraduate course, the teachers

were with the students, conducting active searches for the prevention and detection of Covid-

19 cases and teaching virtual classes. The times and spaces, the formats and dynamics, the do-

mestic and the institutional, the data and experiences, the public and the private; all strained

the field of medical education.

This particular labor characteristic influenced, along with technological limitations, the lack

of informational literacy of part of the faculty (aged moreover) and the limited dissemination

that could be done to postgraduate studies, so that only 12 of the 25 available places were

covered.

From a qualitative point of view, it can be considered that the course's realization was optimal

and enriching since the enrolled teachers, male and female, are all scientific leaders who have

academic degrees of doctorate or master's. They also hold responsibilities such as: (a) head of

the postgraduate department and methodologists of the same, (b) head of the English depart-

ment for specific purposes, (c) teachers of the careers: health information systems, health reha-

bilitation, hygiene and epidemiology, and pharmacology.

The methodological design and pedagogical strategy for the postgraduate implementation

began with an interdisciplinary effort to articulate problems studied by different areas of

knowledge: research methodology, critical epidemiology, international health, and social

problems of science and technology (PSCT).

28 Rosa María Medina Borges and Dianelys Hernández Chisholm

Some features of virtuality at the University of Medical Sciences of Havana

(UCMH) during the pandemic

The first reactions of Cuban university institutions to the sanitary measures dictated by international

organizations and applied by the government, were not much different from those experienced

in other latitudes and were, as expected, contingency. Rapid curricular adjustments were requested

for virtual proposals, in order to take full advantage of the available technological support.

Amid such unprecedented circumstances, it was necessary to become more dynamically aware

of the need to do science and rethink how to focus research in new contexts. Something that

Puiggrós (2021) calls for when questioning teachers about the imperative to articulate new inter-

weaving’s and enunciations between the terms: contingency - experience - inheritance – creation,

in current pedagogical and scientific debates.

As pointed out by Coicaud, Martinelli & Rozenhauz (2021), working in virtuality requires recurrent

updating, demanding clear policies and decisions, because universities do not change without

the commitment of teachers, nor these without the institutions. Their appropriation to transform

teaching is a process that takes time. However, we believe that crises can generate and motivate

growth opportunities both institutionally and personally. Goals that are prolonged over time so-

metimes dissolve, while they can gain strength and astonishing momentum in urgent moments.

Once the most critical stage of the pandemic has been "overcome," in times of recovery or pre-

sumably post-pandemic, it is imperative to systematize applied experiences to signify how much

of what has been done acquires connotation to be normalized in pedagogical practices.

Both at the postgraduate and undergraduate levels, this jolt that we still live outlines the imperative

not only to train in the subjects we teach but to seek dialogues of knowledge through interdisci-

plinary and even transdisciplinarity. On the other hand, to rid ourselves of the reproduction of in-

formation, boring classes, and innovate more effective methodologies but always connected with

the purposes and the educational context in which we act. Publishing to interconnect also becomes

an unpostponable habit.

Cuban medical education takes place in a country blocked by the US government for over 60

years. Simply put, this means being subject to a cluttered legal framework that has extraterritorial

character and affects all of Cuba's economic and commercial relations on the international stage

(which can be cataloged as the longest and most enduring economic war since the post-war pe-

riod). The blockade also affects multidimensionality all social spheres (access to ICTs, in the ideo-

logical-cultural: feeling of a besieged square, among others).

The access of education in general, and medical education in particular, to the use of ICTs for edu-

cational purposes, is still limited. In the last five years, state investments have been made in the

telecommunications branch, and capacity has been increased to provide services. Despite the ef-

forts of the Cuban state to expand connectivity and computerization of Cuban society, it is still far

Virtual Postgraduate Course on Research Paradigms:

a cuban experience in times of pandemic

Revista Digital de Investigación y Postgrado, 5(9), 25-41

ISSN electrónico: 2665-038X

below what is aspired to and needed. In Cuba, connecting to the internet from mobile phones is

still expensive, although with a sustained trend towards price reduction. Students and teachers

have 2G, 3G or 4G depending on the availability of phones, which are mainly imported by travelers

or relatives (sometimes used). The internal retail market for computer and mobile phone equip-

ment is very limited.

Given this situation, it can be affirmed that, through face-to-face modality, it is unlikely to use the

internet sustainably and in real-time in all the dozens of educational scenarios of medical educa-

tion, as the university is located not only in the faculties but in numerous accredited formative

spaces for it: hospitals, polyclinics, medical offices (among other health institutions).

For certain prioritized disciplines, the goal is to intentionally ensure such access through the dis-

tribution and use of the institutional technological base, with criteria of rationality and efficiency.

In remote or virtual modalities, there is not, for the most part, an access option or the technological

support to transmit - in real-time or synchronously - video conferences or online workshops; using

ZOOM or other platforms. The asynchronous use of the Virtual Health Classroom (AVS) predo-

minates, as part of the Virtual University of Health (UVS).

The UVS of Cuba was created in 2001 (Zacca, Diego & López, 2008), and its AVS is supported

on the Moodle platform. The contingency arising from the epidemiological situation allowed

its expansion and encouraged its use not only for postgraduate activities but also for under-

graduate ones.

The didactic resources for the design and implementation of virtual courses are concentrated in

the following didactic units: a general guiding guide for the course in question, with the design of

activities to be developed by the students (both self-control and evaluative tasks to be delivered

and their corresponding schedule) and the general available bibliography. Each topic includes a

folder containing: a specific guiding guide, bibliography (both basic and supplementary); as well

as the conferences (in PowerPoint or in PDF format).

A general course forum is usually designed, as well as evaluative or non-evaluative forums for

each topic; that allow interaction (asynchronous) between teachers and students. The teachers,

who are participating in virtual education for the first time, design the courses and simultaneously

train in the mastery of the Moodle 3.0 platform. There are other available resources that are still

pending use due to limited available technological capacity, and/or because they require conti-

nuous learning processes on the part of teachers and students.

Program designProgram design

The course on rethinking research paradigms in the face of new realities focuses on the logic of

research (conceiving it as a higher moment in research methodology). In its program, it is clarified

that it does not constitute a basic methodology course, as it is considered that the students have

already overcome this level of preparation for research. It includes unusual critical exercises in

30 Rosa María Medina Borges and Dianelys Hernández Chisholm

postgraduate health studies, referring to the approach of different research paradigms, current

methodological debates; and the reconsideration in the face of the new circumstances that the

world in general, and health processes, in particular, are experiencing in the current scenario.

It is conceived as a space for updating on new perspectives in health-related research. It also

emphasizes that each student should exemplify, from their specialty and in dialogue with others,

possible problems that can be researched with new interwoven perspectives by the participants.

The proposal for the postgraduate program is structured around three themes:

Theme 1, Scientific Research and Paradigms, consists of three lectures. In the first, rather than

providing concepts, opinions of various authors are articulated about the main paradigms: a)

positivist or quantum, b) qualitative, c) critical, and d) complexity. Among them are highlighted:

Almeida (1992, 2007), Melero (2012), Colmenares (2012), Sequera (2014), Breilh (2015), Torres

(2015), Maldonado (2016), Basile (2020). The main conclusion that is reached rests on the non-

obligation to adopt a paradigm in an absolute way, but its use must respond to the research

topic and the scientific problems to be solved, for which the understanding of the need for mixed

methodologies is suggested (Muñoz, 2013; Núñez, 2017).

In the second and third conference of topic 1, we reflect upon the following axes of debate and

authors:

The relevance of Morin's idea (1984) about how the enormous mass of quantifiable and •

technically usable knowledge is nothing but poison if deprived of the liberating force of

reflection.

Science and the production of scientific knowledge are changing, and this shows that •

the identity crisis of contemporary science is a crisis of growth, a new mode of producing

and legitimizing knowledge and technology (Morin & Delgado, 2017).

The discovery of the essential components of a complex process doesn't arise from a •

simple accumulation of data. An excess of irrelevant and disconnected data often takes

the form of ignorance. The search for essences is an act of intuition and creativity. The

proposals that stem from this will be validated later (or not) by new concrete experiences

(Lage, 2018).

More often, natural sciences, engineering, social sciences, and humanities collaborate •

to address important complex problems (Estévez, 2019).

The absence of a common language between "natural sciences" and "human sciences" •

makes it difficult to achieve internal coherence that would allow both to not mutually

dismiss each other. The division between these disciplines isn't inherent to science itself

or the humanities, but rather created by those who practice it (Zamora, 2019).

Virtual Postgraduate Course on Research Paradigms:

a cuban experience in times of pandemic

Revista Digital de Investigación y Postgrado, 5(9), 25-41

ISSN electrónico: 2665-038X

Reinterpreting Kuhn (1971), it can be affirmed that scientists work based on models ac-•

quired through education and subsequent exposure in scientific literature, often without

fully understanding or needing to understand the characteristics that have granted these

models their paradigm status in the community. This could explain the non-obligatory

nature of routinely following all procedures of each paradigm, and furthermore, the co-

herence displayed by the research tradition they participate in might not even imply the

existence of a basic set of inviolable rules (Medina, 2021a).

Constant return to research praxis is necessary because the role of the human compo-•

nent is decisive. The need for scientific leadership, researcher motivation, and commit-

ment are essential. Without these, no possible change or adoption of new paradigms

can occur, which ultimately materialize into modes of professional action (Medina, 2021a).

In Topic 2, Scientific Research and Methodological Designs, the relationships between metho-

dological design and research logic are explained, seeking plural views on a subject in open

discussion, but not for that reason avoidable. Among the main authors to be studied in Topic

2 are: Cascante (2011), Corona (2017), Piovani & Muñiz (2018), Cornejo & Rufer (2020).

In Conference 1 of Topic 2, in the face of so many definitions about science, it is summarized

that it is an intentional activity structured to produce new, pertinent, and socially significant

knowledge. The main focus is not on the methods or the instruments with which reality is ex-

plored, but on the logic with which it is conceived to approach the problem to be studied.

Rather than talking about methodology, one should talk about the logic of research, as the de-

sign must function as a flexible, dynamic system; where all the components and parts of the

process, and their results (presented in the final report) are interconnected horizontally. This

should ensure clarity, articulation, and scientific solidity. The importance of the scientist's creativity

and ability to formulate good questions is also emphasized, which can be learned through many

hours of study and research with successive approximations of what has already been formu-

lated. In addition, one must train in the exercise of choosing and evaluating.

Conference 2 of Topic 2 proposes to characterize the methodology of horizontality, as part of

the emerging methodological approaches being developed in the world. It insists on banishing

the fear of diversity in methods and techniques, as the traditional idea of seeing it as a weakness

can be its distinctive quality. Such a stance contributes not only to dialogue among researchers

but also to building encounters with all those involved in the problems being investigated. It

also opens a door to discursive equity and the autonomy of plural voices, born from bringing

together various disciplines embodied in groups that surpass interdisciplinary intentions and

can define what must be built with knowledge (including non-academic knowledge).

In Conference 3 of the aforementioned topic, the idea is further deepened when the link bet-

ween horizontality, mixed methods, and reflexivity is unfolded. Initially, a historical-logical ap-

proach is taken to three essential moments in the discursive construction of methodological

debates: the quantitative consensus in social sciences of the first half of the 20th century, through

32 Rosa María Medina Borges and Dianelys Hernández Chisholm

methodological triangulation and quanti-quali combinations (predominant since approximately

the 1960s of the last century), to debates on triangulation and articulation of mixed methods

(in the 1990s).

On the other hand, it is clarified that mixed design is not reduced to uniting the results obtained

through dissimilar paths but requires integration at all stages of the research: (a) design, (b) ma-

terial creation, (c) participant recruitment, (d) data collection, and (e) own analysis. Mixed methods

are not inherently more or less valid than each specific research approach. Validity rests more on

the suitability, comprehensiveness, and effectiveness with which these methods are applied. An

open question for the next topic is what enigmas permeate the debates in pandemic times.

Topic 3. Contexts and Dilemmas of Scientific Development in the World and Cuba, in Pandemic

Times; focuses its analysis on the multidimensional context of the global crisis in which the pan-

demic emerges, the impacts, and urgencies that this health catastrophe imposed on the field

of health services and research, as well as medical training. It also accounts for the scientific ad-

vances experienced in the period. Among the authors dialoguing are: Maldonado (2021b), Mar-

tínez (2021), and Machado (2020).

The mentioned topic has 2 conferences and focuses its view (among others) on the following axes:

The pandemic of the new coronavirus can be classified as unprecedented. It has gene-•

rated a state of global alert (Breno & Geoffrey, 2020).

The current emergency is not only a health crisis. It is what social sciences qualify as a •

total social fact, in the sense that it transforms the whole of social relations, and shocks

the entirety of actors, institutions, and values (Ramonet, 2020).

In its global reach, Covid-19 represents an unprecedented situation for the world. •

Diseases of the utmost severity, such as Ebola, did not receive as much global and

media interest, as they were confined to a forgotten continent like Africa (Medina,

2021b).

Intellectual, academic, and political debates oscillate between corona-optimism and co-•

rona-pessimism (De Sousa, 2020).

The growth of open science networks, publications, research, and the record time achie-•

vement of vaccines to immunize against Sarcov-2 have been great feats. Meanwhile,

the unequal distribution of vaccines, the commercialization of drugs, and the health po-

licies of most governments, have evidenced inefficiencies (Basile and Feo, 2021).

Cuba is the only Third World country with five vaccines, and such high levels of immu-•

nization. Cuban biotechnology has also produced various drugs for the symptoms of

the disease (Medina, 2021a).

Virtual Postgraduate Course on Research Paradigms:

a cuban experience in times of pandemic

Revista Digital de Investigación y Postgrado, 5(9), 25-41

ISSN electrónico: 2665-038X

During the three topics, participants can contribute their experiences and opinions through

three debate forums and a final integrative workshop; the most significant contributions are

compiled below, as well as the criteria expressed in the feedback of the first edition carried out

from May to July 2021.

Program design