A hanseníase em livros didáticos de biologia do município de Bacabal, Maranhão

Abstract

The interface between the fields of Health and Education, particularly in the teaching of Biology, represents a challenge within the Brazilian educational system due to its complexity. Leprosy, as an infectious, contagious, and chronically evolving disease, remains a public health problem not only because of its magnitude, but also due to its disabling and stigmatizing potential. In this context, understanding how this topic is presented in Biology textbooks becomes fundamental for strengthening school-based health education actions. This study aimed to analyze how leprosy is addressed in six high school Biology textbooks used in nine public schools in the municipality of Bacabal, in the state of Maranhão, and, based on the results obtained, to construct a pedagogical proposal from a theoretical perspective aimed at encouraging Basic Education teachers to problematize leprosy in Biology classes. This is a qualitative study with a documentary theoretical-methodological perspective. Data analysis was guided by the Content Analysis technique. The results revealed the absence of information on leprosy in the analyzed textbooks, with only generic content related to microorganisms being identified. This gap indicates the invisibility of the topic in Biology classes, limiting school health education actions regarding neglected diseases such as leprosy. The study points to the need for revision and updating of textbook contents, aiming at articulating Biology teaching with the real demands of local public health. The Biology textbooks used in Basic Education and distributed in nine schools in the municipality of Bacabal, Maranhão, need to be revised so that they can address this disease carefully from both biological and sociocultural perspectives. Based on the documentary analysis carried out in this master’s dissertation in Education, it is argued that these textbooks present to Brazilian society, and more specifically to Maranhão society, a simplistic view filled with conceptual absences regarding infectious and parasitic diseases, and, most alarmingly, they present no information whatsoever about leprosy. Regarding the sociocultural content of leprosy, silence and absence are evident in the discussion of important aspects such as epidemiology, prejudice, stigma, and discrimination. Such content was not valued, and it is argued that this occurs because leprosy has historically been silenced due to socially, culturally, and politically produced prejudice and stigma. What became evident in the educational documentary research conducted is that the discursive reality inscribed in the six Biology textbooks constitutes an intentional action of total erasure of the theme “leprosy,” pointing to a conceptual negligence on the part of the textbook authors. This evidence further reinforces the need for updating and continuing education of these authors, since they were trained at the undergraduate teaching level. The educational product entitled “The discussion of leprosy in Biology teaching” is a discursive materiality constructed to minimize the absence of biological, social, and cultural information about leprosy detected in the analyzed textbooks. It is expected that this Technical and Technological Product will assist Basic Education teachers in the municipality of Bacabal, Maranhão—and, on a broader scale, teachers throughout Brazil—in implementing problematizing, reflective, critical, and citizenship-oriented discussions in their Biology classes about this complex collective health condition known as leprosy.