This study discusses how the professionals on the family health team interpret and represent the health education and educational practice they perform. The subjects (n=248) - physicians, nurses, nurse aides, and community health workers from 20 basic health units in Belo Horizonte (southeastern Brazil) - were interviewed using the free recall technique and the theory of social representations. Subjects were asked to verbalize five words that came to their minds immediately when thinking about health education, rating them as positive or negative. The Evoc software was used and the simple frequency of occurrence, the weighted average of occurrence based on the order of recall, and the weighted average of all the terms mentioned were calculated. The four decimal frame comprising the central core and contrast and peripheral elements of representation was constructed. Physicians and nurses shared representational content among themselves, expressing similar social representations when presenting the possible central core of 'empowerment' and 'prevention.' Nursing aides and community health workers resemble each other through the possible central elements of 'education' and 'prevention.' The focus is on the conveyance of guidelines aimed at persuading individuals to adopt healthy lifestyles.
health education; family health; social representations
