O campo da educação alimentar e nutricional no espaço escolar e a formação do nutricionista: o que revelam os currículos e a prática pedagógica na universidade?

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the training of nutritionists to work with Food and Nutrition Education (EAN), within the scope of the National School Feeding Program (PNAE). According to Resolution No. 06, of May 8, 2020, which provides for school meals for basic education students, served by the PNAE, EAN activities must be carried out through coordinated action by education professionals and the technician and other nutritionists schools. The actions of EAN aim to promote the Food and Nutritional Security (SAN) of school children, presenting themselves as a strategy to prevent nutritional problems, such as malnutrition and excess weight, through the promotion of healthy eating. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the field of EAN in the training of nutritionists, with a view to activities in school institutions. The investigative device with a qualitative approach was used, adopting the Multiple Case Studies procedure. The empirical research was carried out in three Nutrition courses, two from public universities and one from a private university, installed in different cities in Rio Grande do Sul. The data point to the understanding that the place of school food knowledge is fragile in the context of the academic training of nutritionists with a view to Nutritional Food Education, in Cases 1 and 2. They demonstrate that, in the curriculum and in pedagogical practices, there is no defined place for the knowledge of school feeding, under the focus of training focused on performance with EAN. Some students demonstrated, in their imagery productions, to recognize this environment as a space for the nutritionist, probably those who had access to the school environment during the internship. In Case 3, it was evidenced that, in the curriculum and in the pedagogical practices, there is a place for the knowledge of the EAN aimed at the school environment. Expanding the knowledge of the EAN and defending its importance, as well as, assuming and valuing the school as an area of activity of the nutritionist, guaranteeing the insertion of the student in this area and defending the PNAE as a public policy, are decisive points that need to be present in the training academic nutritionist, in order to promote training committed to the promotion of eating habits and health that prevent nutritional problems, in addition to training for citizenship, with social responsibility. It is an ethical and political commitment by the University and Nutrition courses.