This article reports on a teaching experience carried out with technical education students at Fiocruz's Joaquim Venâncio Polytechnic School of Health (EPSJV/Fiocruz). This experience, which lasted one semester, focused on "Community Health Agents (CHA) - policy, qualification, and work," and aimed to provide the students with an introduction to research following the proposal of initiation to EPSJV's polytechnic education in health. Students and educators analyzed the CHA qualification and work policies and had a chance to discuss the issue with researchers involved in this area and with CHAs. The outcome of the work was the production of a documentary video and the collective preparation of this report. This introductory work in research repositioned students and educators away from the standard condition of "wise master" and "ignorant apprentice," and gave them the chance to break away from the banking model of education and to gain an critical view of the learning process and of the study's object.
research; education; work; health; community agents