This paper analyses how the factors influencing the health-sickness process are presented in early elementary school science learning books in Brazil and what their health-related main pedagogical objectives are. We have analysed the collections approved by the Programa Nacional do Livro Didático [Learning Book National Program] in 2010 for the first school years of elementary school (44 volumes). Such books tend to approach the theme from the point of view of the individual and their habits, in an out-of-context manner and always in face of a given threat. We suggest that those materials incorporate the conceptual advancements in the health field, especially the ones pertaining to the collective dimension and the social determinants, so as to make classroom discussions more relevant.
learning book; health; health education; elementary school
