FOOD, SCIENCE EDUCATION AND FREEDOM: MULTIDIMENSIONAL READINGS OF FOOD FROM A HIGH SCHOOL IN THE WESTERN REGION OF POTIGUAR HINTERLAND
Food is present in our days in more than its nutritional aspects, being related to a complex food system surrounded by various conditioning factors, as well as having a significant historical, cultural, emotional, political and economic impact, with distinctive characteristics for each region. It is essential to work on the subject in science and biology teaching in order to include the multidimensionality of the issue, from a Food and Nutrition Education perspective, which presupposes the search for emancipatory practices. Freire's pedagogy, centered on the learner and his or her freedom, might contribute to the subject being taught from this perspective. This research aims to investigate the contribution of an Freire's presuppositions based educational perspective, for a multidimensional reading of the theme of food in science teaching, in a public high school in the Agreste region of Rio Grande do Norte. The qualitative study was developed in partnership with UFRN's aboratório de Popularização das Ciências (LabPOP) and is classified as research-action, with biographical and documental research carried out in advance. The participants were students from five classes in the three grades of secondary school at the Escola Estadual Monsenhor Paiva, in the municipality of Vera Cruz, in the metropolitan region of Natal/RN, including classes in which I was teaching Biology or Curricular Units. The research consisted of meetings during class time, guided by the Pedagogical Moments, preceded by a previous dialogue for the purposes of directed class planning. The data was constructed according to the Textual Discourse Analysis, resulting in the following categories: Dynamics of interactions; Family, tradition, affections and customs; Taste, processing and industry; Un(avoidable) barriers to health; Income, politics, access and (im)possibilities; Field, experience and work; Freedom. These categories were discussed based on arguments related to Freire's presuppositions, based on some of the main writings of the educator Paulo Freire: horizontal, patient and critical listening; the relationship between curricular knowledge and social experience; the social, economic and ecological importance of the context in which we live; education and the emancipation of thought. The Educational Product is being developed from the reflection and expansion of the results achieved after the empirical research and consists of a guide for science and biology educators, both teachers in training and practicing, entitled "Let's talk about what we eat?". The production includes reflections and didactic guidelines, not a ready-made recipe, but a basis from which to develop activities that aim to work on the theme of food in the classroom, from the perspective adopted by the work, Freire's pedagogy.