Educação e saúde: uma investigação sobre as diferentes abordagens de saúde e do processo de didatização em livro didático do Ensino Médio

Abstract

The present study aims to reflect on the production of school culture and knowledge based on the analysis of the subject health in high school textbooks through qualitative desk research. The high school textbook is being used as an empirical object since it stands as the key component of the work done by both teachers and students, hence the large investment in acquisition and evaluation programs such as the PNLD, besides the fact that the last contact students have with schools is in high school. The reason for selecting health as the subject to be analyzed lies in its enormous relevance to society as well as in the fact that students stand out as multipliers of such knowledge which is shared in schools. The textbook analysis was inspired by the biomedical, behavioral, and socioenvironmental approaches (WESTPHAL, 2006). It was possible to identify how comprehensively the subject is approached in the material analyzed and what its impact is on the high school curriculum. The analysis of the didactization process sought to identify stylistic and morphological features (FORQUIN, 1992, p.34) which enhance textbook content presentation and clarification, thereby transforming textbooks into teaching tools which facilitate the learning process. The classification of the didactic devices featuring this process was based on the categories present in Forquin s work (1992). The book presents a wide range of approaches to health , amongst which the biomedical one stands out as it is predominant in most of the chapters analyzed. The use of the socioenvironmental and behavioral approaches has proved useful as a strategy to contextualize the subject while including students realities, which, in turn, promotes at different moments a broader understanding of the subject being studied. The appreciation of the content presentation in the textbook is done by means of organization in special sections Box, Text and Context, Connections, The News and also through a rich repertoire of images such as pictures, illustrations, schemes, models, among others. The clarification process takes form through exemplification and explanatory comments, especially when more technical language is used; through the use of images containing a large amount of information condensed in descriptive legends; through the progressivity which establishes a train of thought that favors learning in a text which is structurally and hierarchically organized in parts and subparts; not to mention the use of metaphors which facilitate the reference to new processes that are uncommon to students through the use of more familiar terms and expressions. The control over learning or the consolidation thereof takes place through questions proposed in specific sections. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of the school knowledge construction process in textbooks, specifically as regards the health subject, whose understanding of the relations which promote it is essential to the education of students.