Education as a strategy for health promotion development

Taking into account the growing number of academic articles and health policies focusing on Health Promotion, one may consider that  there have been fragmented positions which approach the role that Education historically played in the development of  social policies evolving interdisciplinary and intersectoral models – far beyond those medical-biological centered models – addressing the improvement of life quality and Health and fostering community participation and empowerment. These major values of Health Promotion (Ottawa Charter, 1986) are the same that, in Latin America, have legitimated and guaranteed strong arguments for changing movements from the traditional  hygienicists policies of the so called Sanitary Education, in the beginning of the last past century, to participatory and pedagogical (dialogical) approaches of the Education on Health. Academic studies, forums and national and international conferences along the 70’s and 80’s, highlighted the role of the Education on Health in shifting the medical-preventivist paradigm and in the enlargement of the concept of Health in actions and public health policies. Paulo Freire’ thoughts and writings, his international recognition and his strong influence in community based development programs and in participatory practices evolving the Education and Health are also concrete facts in this perspective. What could explain this lack of synchronism between the Education – on Freire’s paradigm and perspectives - the Education on Health and the Health Promotion? Even recognizing the methodological weakness in the development of models to evaluate Education on Health programs, one may assume that the scarcity of evidences does not justify this lack of synchrony. Which are the parameters to evaluate the effectiveness of the social participation in the improvement of life and Health? How to infer intersectorality on Health projects and policies? For its sustainability and development, as much as the Education on Health, the Health Promotion needs address these types of questions.