Approaches to Public Health in Biology Textbooks

Abstract

The aim of the research was to investigate how collective immunization, immunological memory, disease eradication, and vaccines are addressed in the collections of Natural Sciences and its Technologies textbooks in high school in Brazil. As a methodology, we used content analysis of seven collections of textbooks, each with six volumes, published in 2020.We evaluated the presence of conceptual errors, the clarity and adequacy of the language, the historical contextualization in the approach, proposals for complementary reading, suggestions for activities and/or group discussions, and the relationship of content with biotechnology and the anti-vaccine movement. The results show that the topic of active immunization is present in all textbooks, although the approach is superficial, dedicating between 1 and 16 pages to the topic, depending on the collection. We observed that topics suchs as the anti-vaccination movement, the importance of herd immunity and the relationship between vaccines and biotechnology have not been sufficiently explored. The works analyzed textbooks address the proposed themes, use updated vocabulary, suitable for high school, and are free from conceptual errors. Thus, textbooks have the potential to be significant, enabling the formation of reflective, critical and participatory citizens within society.