The social representations of vaccines in the context of Science and Health Education in Elementary School

Abstract

In this paper, we are committed to the theoretical-methodological framework of Social Representations and aim to present a cognitive-structural study of the social representations of vaccines expressed by a group of 7th-grade elementary school students, underscoring the relevance of these studies in pedagogical actions anchored in dealing with socioscientific issues that permeate the relationship between Science and Health Education. Starting with the evocation of words, through the structural approach of the Central Core Theory, we point to a representational arrangement underlined by the importance of vaccines in disease prevention and health preservation, which nonetheless causes pain to and frightens students. In view of the analysis, we intend to build pathways for the relevance of studies dedicated to understanding the forms of everyday knowledge while conducting teaching and learning processes from the perspective of (re)signification of the relationships between Science Teaching and Health Education.

Keywords
Vaccine; Basic education; Social representation; Socioscientific issues; Sociology and education