INTRODUCTION: The educative actions in health promotion are intended to develop, in individuals, family and communities, the capacity for perception of their health needs and joint participation in their resolution, bearing in mind their possibilities. Education on the effectiveness of health promotion practices is an effective instrument, which has been implemented through different methodologies. The traditional health education model based on Paulo Freire’s philosophy is widely used in the Brazil Unified Health System. OBJECTIVE: Identify curiosity as a Freirian parameter of health education in primary care. METHODS: This is an descriptive qualitative study carried out in the municipality of Juazeiro do Norte, Ceara, Brazil. In all, 31 nurses from basic health units (UBS) and 12 users from the Unified Health System participated in a semi-structured and observational interview mediated by context interpretation in individuals who participated in educational groups. The organisation of the material collected for the search took place on the basis of Bardin’s proposal and the analysis was based on the epistemological characteristics of Paulo Freire. RESULTS: Traditional pedagogies were used during the development of the interviews. It was observed that the educational activities whith focus on disease are still an obstacle to promoting a critical awareness of users. Once the nurses were limited to this methodology and the users complied with the guidelines, favouring their naive curiosity, they followed the prescribed instructions mechanically and without understanding, possibly involving temporary behaviour changes. The curativist/biomedical model was used during these activities. Curiosity was expressed via clarifications and questions that arose during the health education activities. However, these clarifications were limited to the questions and answers that the users and professionals exchanged, which allowed for the transfer of information but did not stimulate the users to be reflective. CONCLUSION: Curiosity, described by Paulo Freire as the learning process designed to produce active, critical, and reflective individuals, still does not happen in primary healthcare.