THE SERTÃO AND POPULAR HEALTH EDUCATION: THROUGH THE EXPERIENCE
OF THE BASIC EDUCATION MOVEMENT, CAICÓ SYSTEM – RN, RÁDIO RURAL, 1970
TO 1980
MEB; Popular Health Education; Radio; Caicó System.
This work aims to analyze how the radio programs of the Basic Education Movement (MEB),
Caicó System – RN, Rádio Rural, during the 1970s and 1980s, were related to health education.
In this sense, through discussions developed within the course Historiography of the Sertões,
certain issues were integrated into the research, such as the specific understanding of the
Sertões addressed in this study. The methodological approach is based on Content Analysis as
proposed by Laurence Bardin, which allows for an in-depth examination of the programs'
content and its relationship with the social and cultural context of the time. This research seeks
to highlight how MEB used radio as a tool for popular education. Through the analysis of the
radio programs and correspondence from listeners, we identified MEB’s concern with
promoting popular health education. The study is guided by the following research objectives:
“To identify how listeners/students were able to understand and learn the information and
content, examining how MEB’s teaching methods were developed to convey knowledge about
health and diseases,” and “To analyze how the process of health education took place in the
Sertão through the radio programs of the Basic Education Movement, Rádio Rural, Caicó
System/RN, between the 1970s and 1980s.” The analysis identifies representations and
discourses present in the programs, revealing conceptions of health and illness, as well as the
cultural practices and values of the rural population.