Abstract

PENARANDA C, Fernando; GIRALDO G, Libardo  and  BARRERA P, Luz Helena. teaching of health education: a confrontation with the theory and practice of public health as a discipline?. Rev. Fac. Nac. Salud Pública [online]. 2015, vol.33, n.3, pp.353-360. ISSN 0120-386X.  https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.rfnsp.v33n3a04.

OBJECTIVE: to understand the teaching of health education (HE) at the National Faculty of Public Health (NFPH) are presented. Methodology: The research was conducted using group and individual interviews with teachers, students and graduates as well as with the review of the curricula of the academic programs of the faculty. RESULTS : A predominant teaching of HE as a tool or strategy was found, conceived from a biomedical perspective and founded on a traditional/coercive pedagogical model. The fact that HE teaching in the NFPH does not have the expected relevance was also identified, which apparently means a contradiction. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: the theoretical reflection developed presents a different explanation: it is not a contradiction; rather this situation pertains to a logical consequence of a public health perspective prevailing in the NFPH. The role of education depends on the public health trend in which it is aligned. Other trends of public health in which education has a basic and foundational sense and is conceived from the point of view of alternative pedagogical models are identified. So addressing HE teaching and defining the profile of public health professionals is not a neutral and technical issue in terms of including certain topics. It is rather a consequence of a theoretical and political debate about the type of public health that should guide the curricula of academic programs and actions in the faculty.

Keywords : health education; teaching; public health; theory; pedagogy.

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