Abordagem da temática "plantas medicinais" durante o curso de Ciências Biológicas e sua influência na formação do professor pesquisador

Abstract

For many centuries, man has had a relationship with the environment, especially the natural environment, using it as a source of raw material for various purposes, including health and well-being. Medicinal plants often appear in the social context as one of the most recommended alternatives in therapy and prevention against various types of diseases. In view of this, it becomes necessary to investigate the importance of discussing this topic in the professional training environment, such as the undergraduate course in Biological Sciences and the inclusion of this topic in the higher education curriculum. To this end, a group of students from that course at the Federal University of Paraíba was investigated by applying a questionnaire in order to raise knowledge about the personal experience of individuals, how much medicinal plants are involved in their social and academic context , directing the debate to the influence of this content in the training of professionals in the science area, since this area is the main responsible for training people capable of influencing socially and politically the environment. When analyzing the responses obtained, it was observed that most of the interviewees have already had contact and / or used it for some purpose, such as the treatment or prevention of diseases, often due to the influence of traditional knowledge transmitted by a family member or close person. Most respondents considered that this popular knowledge has an important influence on professional training. Thus, it was also investigated how the Biological Sciences course deals with traditional and scientific knowledge in the construction of knowledge about medicinal plants. Approximately 77% of the survey participants stated that they had not taken any discipline that addressed the content presented, leaving the biologist's training to talk about medicinal plants flawed. This was confirmed by 63% of respondents if they consider themselves unprepared to deal with the issue. In this way, the deficiency of the political-pedagogical and curricular project of the Biological Sciences course at UFPB was identified, opening space for new debates for the reformulation and inclusion of new themes to be discussed during the course, since the breadth of the area performance of the biologist requires different adaptations for a quality professional exercise.