Telling stories, caring for life: narrative-based health education

Abstract

The use of stories in health education is not new and is basically meant to disseminate information and influence behaviors and habits focused on clinical results such as blood glucose control. Based on the criticisms to the limited ways in which stories have been explored in terms of the purposes they have served, it is therefore proposed that new narrative approaches be incorporated into health education, within the scope of critical pedagogical processes. References are made to Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy and the ontological approach to the narrative developed by thinker Paul Ricoeur as a possibility of acquiring self-knowledge in the relationship with others. Considering that narrative texts express ways of understanding the world, the “world of the text”, then its existential meaning is highlighted, giving rise to the construction and reconstruction of diverse ways of being-in-the-world. Language plays a prominent role in this understanding of the text-world by the reader-student, who may agree or disagree with the plots, empathize or not with the characters, conform to the situations presented or find them strange. Narratives may end up problematizing the course of the storylines presented, as well as reconfiguring the stories, the others’ and their own, favoring reflections on vulnerabilities and potentialities in health care.