Pathways for health education from popular education: experiences in Argentine bachilleratos populares

Abstract: The Bachilleratos Populares (BP) are secondary schools for youths and adults, self-managed and referenced in Popular Education (PE), which emerged in Argentina in 2004. We present here a study of Health Education from these experiences, based on interviews with teachers in nine BP. We identify a series of relevant traits. These include diverse subjects (individual and collective) which are driving curricular processes; health as a field of intervention (of individual and/or collective transformations) using multidimensional, rights and gender perspectives; supra-disciplinary approaches, which recognize various sources: academic knowledge critically assessed through popular knowledge and social movements; and the search for participation and commitment and for coherent methodologies, through reflexive and self-training practice. In short, this research shows dissident answers with respect to hegemonic rationality and institutionality.