ABSTRACT
Objective
To analyse the path of dialogical education in leisure and mental health in social media.
Method
Action research based on the theoretical-methodological framework of Paulo Freire, conducted with 11 nursing students of a public university in the state of Paraná, Brazil, during seven days of June 2015, in a closed group on Facebook®. The dialogues were called, ‘Virtual Culture Circles’ and preceded by self-administered questionnaires that addressed the relationship between leisure and mental health. The data were analysed in an interpretive way, using the encoding and decoding proposed by Freire.
Results
The students related leisure to pleasurable activities and quality of life; however, it is not widely or critically practiced in their personal lives or education.
Conclusions
The Virtual Culture Circles provided emancipatory dialogues and a critical analysis of the subject matter, with possible repercussions on the personal and professional lives of the subjects.
Nursing; Education, Nursing; Leisure activities; Mental health; Community-based participatory research