Entre o agreste e o sertão: documentos institucionais e temas em saúde nas aulas de educação física escolar no estado de Alagoas

Abstract

For years, health has been understood from a hygienist perspective, focusing on physicalbiological well-being with the aim of preventing diseases and strengthening the body. Physical Education was used to disseminate this model among children and adolescents, conceptualized as Gymnastics. However, health education needs to go beyond, aiming at the comprehensive development of knowledge in dimensions analogous to health, such as mental, social, spiritual, and physical well-being. The main objective of the study was to identify the frequency of "Health Education" content in the pedagogical practices of teachers in the 2nd, 5th, and 6th Regional Education Management of Basic Education in the State of Alagoas (GEREs). The research was configured as qualitative-quantitative, cross-sectional, exploratory, descriptive, and analytical, based on school settings, with statewide scope and cross-sectional cut. Participants included administrators, coordinators, and teachers from the 2nd, 5th, and 6th GERE’s. A mixed questionnaire (closed/open-ended and scaled) with 85 items, presented in Google Docs format, was used to collect the topics discussed by teachers. The results showed that the majority of cities (66.7%) do not have a guiding document for teachers. Only 23.8% of cities claimed to have a document for health education. Positively, 57.1% of municipalities reported having a Physical Education coordination. Overall, teachers regularly discuss all health dimensions, emphasizing the physical dimension (2.07±0.51), with the social dimension (1.73±0.61) scoring the lowest. It is concluded that most Education Departments in the analyzed GEREs do not create their own guiding documents for School Physical Education or health education, as these documents were previously created by the Health in Schools Program. Positively, the majority of cities have a Physical Education coordination (52.4%). In summary, teachers frequently address health-related topics in all dimensions.