Raça, saúde e epigenética: princípios de design para uma educação antirracista no ensino de genética

Abstract

In recent history, disputes can be found regarding the causes of racial iniquities in health within both science and society. On one side, there is the influence exerted by 20th-century genetics on unifactorial health models with a deterministic bias. On the other, there are the denunciations of social activism, which, supported by broader health approaches, argue that the origin of racial health disparities lies in the socio-environmental effects of racism. Since the post-genomic era, alternative epidemiological models have been proposed, aiming to overcome the nature-culture dichotomy by considering that the social phenomenon of race can become embodied and compromise the biological well-being of racialized individuals. These theoretical models are interdisciplinary in nature and involve explanations such as those provided by epigenetics, an emerging field in biology that challenges the paradigm of biological inheritance being restricted to genes. Scientific models that articulate race, health, and inheritance have an ambivalent character: while they can contribute to public health policies, they may also allow for a regression into new forms of stigmatization and eugenics. Due to these associated controversies and the necessity of mobilizing scientific knowledge to reflect on a social issue, this topic can be considered a socio-scientific issue (SSI), which can be used as a didactic strategy in science education. Considering the demands in Biology Teaching for guidelines and pedagogical materials that enable the implementation of anti-racist educational actions and strategies to overcome the genetic determinist discourse present in curricula, this dissertation aims, through Educational Design Research, based on the SSI approach within the context of STSE education, the guidelines of Educação das Relações Étnico-Raciais (Ethnic-Racial Relations Education), and Health Education, to investigate design principles for a didactic sequence based on an SSI involving race, health, and epigenetics. The goal is to promote anti-racist education and a understanding of the concept of biological inheritance from a pluralistic perspective in high school biology teaching. This work encompasses the preliminary research phase of Educational Design Research, consisting of a theoretical investigation articulated with a dialogue with the experiential knowledge of teaching practice to construct the conceptual framework guiding the study and supporting the systematization of four design principles. It also includes an investigation cycle within the prototyping phase, which involves the validation of the design principles and the didactic sequence developed from them by Science Education teachers and researchers. Based on the analysis of the validation process results, the consistency and coherence of the research outputs were verified, leading to the conclusion that they have the potential to meet the established educational expectations. Additionally, based on the analysis of the evaluators' suggestions, criteria were established to remove, insert, or refine elements of the didactic sequence so that it could be improved for its implementation in the real classroom context. It is expected that this study will contribute to Biology Teaching by providing foundations, guidelines, and strategies that enable the articulation of content related to biological inheritance with the objectives of anti-racist education.