Approaches to food production and its relationship with health and sustainability in a Science teaching collection

Abstract

Studies on food have been emphasized in light of emerging problems such as the spread of hunger, socio-environmental imbalance and socioeconomic inequalities. These are complex and multifaceted issues that are reaching schools, albeit in a fragmented way and with a biomedical emphasis, especially in Science teaching. In this context, the present article aims to investigate approaches to food production in the interrelationships between food, health, and sustainability in a science teaching collection. The work is qualitative in nature, involving a documentary analysis of a science teaching collection for the final years of elementary school adopted in Brazilian public schools, based on the theoretical and methodological contributions of cultural studies in education. The results obtained in the different volumes culminated in the following categories: predatory fishing and other threats to aquatic organisms; genetically modified organisms; criticism of monoculture and livestock farming; agroecology and environmental conservation; and environmental education and health education practices. With regard to analysis, emphasis is placed on the goal that students should not merely change their discourse, but also incorporate new attitudes, so that science teaching, mainly through teacher mediation, can reverberate in social transformations, in a process of citizen education. Thus, the collection contemplates the development of a critical view of the subject and practices based on scientific argumentation, with approaches that go beyond the content of science and can take on new contours with the action of the curriculum.