FOOD AND NUTRITION IN BRAZILIAN SCHOOLS:
HEALTH AND SCIENCE EDUCATION INTERACTIONS
Carolina Netto Rangel¹, Elizabete Cristina Ribeiro Silva², Rebecca Greenwood³ and Alexandre Brasil Fonseca4
1Dietitian. PhD student at the Nucleus of Educational Technology for Health (NUTES), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil.
2Biologist and Primary School Teacher. PhD student at the Nucleus of Educational Technology for Health (NUTES), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil.
3Dietitian. MSC from the Nucleus of Educational Technology for Health (NUTES), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil.
4Sociologist. Director of the Nucleus of Educational Technology for Health (NUTES), Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil.
Abstract: The debate on healthy eating habits has been integrating many activities, inside and outside schools. The main professionals involved with this subject at schools are the science teachers, even though "health" is a transversal theme in Brazilian schools according to the National Curricular Parameters. The objective of the present study is to identify, within scientific publications, intersections between science education and health education in Brazilian schools amid the food and nutrition theme. In analyzing these papers, a focus upon teachers as the main knowledge transmitters was perceived, highlighting the necessity to enhance their knowledge on food and nutrition. It is important to signalize that teacher's contributions towards food and nutrition education in schools could involve a lot more.
Teachers have the means to enrich the actual knowledge construction on this theme, to discuss the concepts of healthy eating habits, as well as the ways to analyze and understand their meanings and better forms of accepting them, or not. The presence of transdisciplinary views becomes fundamental especially when scientific concepts are involved. Nowadays it is not possible to talk about health whilst disregarding scientific knowledge and, on the other hand, science education constitutes an important field to be considered when health education activities are planned, especially at schools.
Keywords: food and nutrition education; science education; health education;
transdisciplinarity; complexity.
INTRODUCTION
Presently, the debate on healthy eating habits has been integrating many activities, inside and outside schools. This demands efforts from different areas of knowledge and creates needs to deal with complex issues.
The Brazilian Ministry of Health has been working on the regulation of the food trade in schools with the objective of reducing the supply of unhealthy foods. Furthermore, there are recommendations from several governmental sectors concerning children’s and teenager’s eating habits with a focus upon the school environment. This concern can be observed within the proposals in the National Curriculum Parameters (PCNs) and the National School Feeding Programme (PNAE) from the Ministry of Education; the Ministry of Social Development and Fight against Hunger; the Food and Nutrition Security Policy and Health Promoting Schools from the Ministry of Health and the Interministerial Ordinance nº 1010/2006 a joint action from the Ministry of Health and of Education (Bezerra, 2009; Ribeiro & Caniné, 2007).
The National School Curriculum Parameters contribute to this issue by establishing health as a transversal theme that should be introduced in all subjects with different emphasis and in educational activities within the Brazilian schools. One of the objectives is that
students start to value and adopt healthier eating habits as one of the basic aspects of well- being, and are able to act responsibly in relation to their own health and that of the community. This includes watchfulness over their eating habits. One of the great challenges for public schools, in this respect, is to create and maintain a connection between the PCNs and the National School Feeding Programme. Increasing attention has been drawn to PNAE because it is the most long-lasting and extensive enterprise in this context. It has also been undergoing changes in order to adopt educational actions and promote healthy eating habits with a transversal perspective in schools. The Health Promoting Schools initiative must be recognized for its understanding of health education with a holistic view and the suggestion of using participative methodologies for the creation of healthy environments and health service provisions. And finally, the Interministerial Ordinance nº 1.010/2006 establishes guidelines for the promotion of healthy eating habits within public and private schools and reinforces and extends the orientations of the PCNs. In this way, the complexity of the issue at hand is well acknowledged and suggestions for its incorporation within school curriculum have been made. The suggestions are based on integrating themes concerning eating habits in all of the study areas and providing day-to-day experiences in school, with a need for transversal propositions.
Changes in eating habits involve a complex phenomenon (Fischler, 1995) associating education with health sustenance, among other aspects. Thus, food and nutrition education require sectors and professionals from different areas of knowledge. This theme is a converging point between science education and health education, considering that it is an object of study in both areas. The former due to the understanding that science must be a part of general education so that all citizens may comprehend “the most general, positive and problematic implications” of what is defined as the “society of knowledge” and, in this case, its association with human being’s eating behavior (Schwartzman & Christophe, 2009). And in health education, because food and nutrition education fulfills what the World Health Organization proposed by dealing with “social factors that affect health, dealing with the ways in which different aspects of health and well-being are socially constructed”. Moreover, it includes “liberating pedagogical proposals, committed to the development of solidarity and citizenship, directing itself to actions with the purpose of improving the quality of life and of promoting mankind” (Schall & Struchiner, 2010). Although the possibilities for contributions in both fields of knowledge and the need for interdisciplinary and transversal approaches for the theme are recognized, this is not a reality within formal education. The introduction of food and nutrition education usually happens via science education due to its affinity to the curriculum and the teachers of this area. However, these teachers most commonly do not received training in the area of food and nutrition and therefore broach the theme superficially, giving out isolated information that falls short of the basic nutritional orientations (Souza, 2008). The same may occur with those who have the scientific knowledge within this theme, but have not been prepared to perform pedagogical interventions in schools.
In seeking elements that may expand this discussion, the objective of the present study is to identify, within scientific publications, intersections between science education and health education in Brazilian schools amid the food and nutrition theme.
METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES
A bibliographic survey was carried out in the Scielo database, within the title and the abstract fields, with the keywords “food and school”; “food and education”; “nutrition and school”; “nutrition and education”; “nutrition and science”; “food and science”. The search cumulated in 30, 40, 10, 28, 17 and 7 results for each keyword combination, respectively.
After a process of selection 12 papers published in Brazil, in the last 10 years (1999-2009), were included in this article. The selection criteria were articles related to food and nutrition themes within basic education.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Were analyzed four papers related to topic of teachers training: Davanço et al (2004);
Bizzo and Leder (2005), Schmitz et al. (2008) and Castro et al (2007). The other eight papers were analyzed in a previous study (Rangel & Fonseca, 2010).
The investigation carried out by Davanço et al (2004), aimed at evaluating the knowledge of teachers who had and those who had not been exposed to an educational programme. They considered that the exposed teachers were better prepared conceptually and were more aware of the roles of teachers and the school when it came to transforming reality.
Schmitz et al. (2008) also suggested a methodology for an educational programme to train preschool and elementary teachers and school cafeteria owners. They analyzed the participants knowledge on food and nutrition after and before the course. The conclusion was that the methodology helped expand knowledge amongst teachers and cafeteria owners, highlighting the school as a prime space for promoting healthy eating habits.
Broadening the focus to public polices, Bizzo and Leder (2005) proposed to include nutrition education programmes as a transversal themes in the National Curricular Parameters for Brazilian Elementary Schooling (PCN). These authors pointed out the necessity to adjust the nutrition undergraduate courses, to model and understand the construction and change in food habits within the school context, and to integrate this theme with other actions and interventions. These notes signalize an initial change in food and nutrition education views in schools, making it possible to think about an expansion of the concepts involved.
Finally, in the study developed by Castro et al (2007) there was an expressive participation of different school actors (elementary teachers, primary healthcare professionals, school cooks and adolescents) in testing an educational methodology for the promotion of healthy diets, adopting cooking as its structural axis. It was a theoretical and methodological innovation in the area, including concepts that had not yet been explored in this area, such as:
“health promotion precepts, a critical approach to health education, the human right to adequate food, food and nutrition security and reflections about food culture in the contemporary context”.
Among these researches, eight papers were analyzed in a previous article (Rangel and Fonseca, 2010), indicating a relevant convergence between science education and health education. In these studies, it was possible to identify the transmission of scientific concepts as the main manner of conducting the health education interventions. It is important to highlight that most of these researches were carried out by health professionals, especially dieticians, and published in health journals. A similar conclusion was obtained by Silva and Fonseca (2009) that did not identify an explicit pedagogical intention in most of the food and nutrition education studies analyzed. When evident, the traditional theoretical and methodological views on education were predominant, with a main focus on knowledge transmission.
In understanding transdisciplinarity as a way to construct the unity of knowledge, considering the complexity (Nicolescu, 1999; Giotto, 2004), the need to interrelate knowledge in different research fields is strongly signalized, bringing to the discussions concerning food and nutrition some considerations from the area of science education. In order for this to become possible, the challenge to integrate health professionals and education professionals must be overcome. This challenge was also put in evidence by Boog (2009), who indicated
this necessity as a means to enrich the Brazilian National School Feeding Program, which is managed by health professionals. Teachers do not recognize this program as an opportunity for pedagogical action because they do not participate in the decisions within it. Thus, the urge for investing in educational projects that involve a diversity of professionals is brought to the surface, in order for eating habits in school to become an possibility for learning and producing knowledge (Costa et al, 2001).
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
In analyzing these papers, a focus upon teachers as the main knowledge transmitters was perceived, highlighting the necessity to enhance their knowledge on food and nutrition. It is important to signalize that the teachers’ contributions towards food and nutrition education in schools could involve a lot more. Teachers have the means to enrich the actual knowledge construction on this theme, to discuss the concepts of healthy eating habits, as well as the ways to analyze and understand their meanings and better forms of accepting them, or not.
The presence of transdisciplinary views becomes fundamental especially when scientific concepts are involved. Nowadays it is not possible to talk about health whilst disregarding scientific knowledge and, on the other hand, science education constitutes an important field to be considered when health education activities are planned, especially at schools.
This way, socio-scientific issues could be one of the forms to integrate food and nutrition education with the knowledge enrolled in the different subjects at schools. It is a complex theme that involves concepts within the natural sciences, social and human sciences, environment and sustainable development, ethics, and many other areas of scientific and non scientific knowledge.
REFERENCES
Bezerra, J. A. B. (2009) Alimentação e escola: signifcados e implicações curriculares da merenda escolar. Revista Brasileira de Educação. 14 (40), jan./abr.
Bizzo, M. L. G.; & Leder, L. (2005) Educação nutricional nos parâmetros curriculares nacionais para o ensino fundamental. Revista de Nutrição, Campinas, 18 (5), 661-667, set./out.
Caniné, E.; & Ribeiro, V. (2007) A prática do nutricionista em escolas municipais do Rio de Janeiro: um espaço-tempo educativo. Ciência & Educação, 13 (1), 47-70.
Castro, I. R. R.; Souza, T.S.N.; Maldonado, L. A.; Caniné, E. S.; Rotenberg, S.; & Gugelmin, S. A. (2007) A culinária na promoção da alimentação saudável: delineamento e experimentação de método educativo dirigido a adolescentes e a profissionais das redes de saúde e de educação. Revista de Nutrição, Campinas, 20 (6), 571-588, nov./dez.
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