La estructura de la(s) representación(es) social(es) sobre alimentación adecuada, en el contexto del PAE y basada en los saberes y prácticas de docentes de instituciones educativas rurales

Abstract

This research aims to determine the structure of social representation(s) (SR) regarding adequate nutrition, focusing the analysis on the knowledge and practices of teachers at Rural Educational Institutions (RIIs) where the School Feeding Program (SFP) "Food for Learning" is being implemented. It has been very important to establish reference frameworks based on international experiences with SFPs, finding that in the Latin American and Caribbean region, they have enjoyed a long and successful development in countries such as Peru, Costa Rica, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. This development contrasts with the difficulties, problems, and instabilities encountered in attempts to implement them in the country. To carry out the research, the concept and methodologies for the study of social representations were comprehensively reviewed, establishing Jean Claude Abric's Central Core Theory (TNC) as a fundamental framework, primarily due to the methodological implications that characterize this structural position. To this end, a group of ten participating teachers from rural educational institutions in the municipality of Tenjo (Cundinamarca) was formed, with whom the structural process of Abric's proposal was executed. Two phases of research were carried out: one virtual, in which the main research instrument was applied: a questionnaire on PAE components, adequate nutrition, social representations from the TNC perspective, and the pedagogical-curricular proposal. The second phase was in person, in which activities related to TNC methodological processes and discussions about curricular strategies for PAE operation were carried out. The analysis of the collected material and the different recording instruments through deductive coding was carried out using the qualitative analysis tool MAXQDA. The results obtained emphasize demonstrating that the structure of SR is characterized by the predominance of the representational field, in which the values ​​of associativity—that is, the capacity to establish multiple links and relationships between different concepts, terms, and meanings—along with the guiding and expressive function, take center stage, far above a fundamental element such as the central core. Similarly, in the SR structure of adequate nutrition, meanings constructed through antinomies and opposites are paramount, rather than the construction of senses and meanings that directly allude to the reality configured around adequate nutrition. These results allow us to conclude that the SR of adequate nutrition in the context of the PAE in IER is variable and not structured around a consolidated central core. This, among other things, means that common and socially shared meanings fluctuate and shift between different meanings and are even better assimilated if, in their construction of meaning, opposing figures and realities are used, such as malnutrition and the consumption of products that lead to various types of eating disorders. This would explain the absence of a consolidated PAE in the country and results in the need to propose very important curricular guidelines in parallel with the operational activities involved daily in the operation of the PAE in each educational institution. These guidelines are characterized by their openness and their orientation toward a hidden curriculum, in the sense of Giroux's proposal; other guidelines, from a public policy perspective, reinforce existing intentions and lead to the expected results specifically regarding the nutrition and well-being of new generations.