De professor para professor: a prática da educação ambiental na sala de aula

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the contribution of environmental education practices (EE), on the educational project of the Technical College of Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (CTUR). Initially, an exploratory study was done with students of the Organic Farming high school and some school staff, using short videos, visits to the College's campus to observe the school´s garbage, and a guided tour on the city's garbage deposit as elements of motivation. After these activities, a survey was done of the participants’ environmental awareness, through free demonstrations via reports about what was seen and discussed in these activities, followed by a brainstorming with presentation of possible solutions to the school problems. Further, a semistructurade questionnaire was applied with open questions, in which the interviewee had freedom to write about the proposed issue, and pre-formulated closed questions, whereby highlighted the best answers which represented their opinion. 65 students and members of staff filled questionnaire up. The questionnaires were analyzed statistically by dispersion and by the results, it was noted that the arguments of the interviewers were typically Cartesian. This reductive vision limits their ability to see the problem in a systemic way, because they are arguments that show a mechanistic design of the universe, whose laws, according to this conception, could be in theory, objectively learned through scientific procedures. These structures of thought are not exclusive of interviewees, particularly among students. They were certainly consolidated in family conviviality, neighborhood relationship and in other groups of relationship, including the school. Within this perspective, it is understood that EE has the purpose to disarm these structures of thought that perceive the relationship man/nature within a binary mechanics in formal logic and rationalist. This research used a special population that can be considered as been representative of the student elite of the country. So, they are not generalized conclusions about the set of the Brazilian population. If this premise is true, this finding is that the situation is worrying since the vast majority of Brazilians surely has an instructional level lower than the interviewees in this research, supporting the argument that the results obtained are representative and mirror the Brazilian reality, what sustain the urgency of to implement EE in the school’s curriculum across the country. The analysis of the results obtained in this research allowed an interpretation and a more precise and detailed diagnosis of the EE framework in its most varied aspects under CTUR. As a result, could be identified misconceptions and faults, resulted primarily from a shallow approach of the EE at the institution. Was given a set of epistemological suggestions, to assist to the institution's Pedagogical Political Project and to the effective implementation of EE, understanding that the teacher's target is not only complement this suggestion, but also find answers to the questions that issue evokes and thus, propose alternative ways of thinking and acting.