Abordagem da Agroecologia nos cursos de Agronomia do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Minas Gerais – Campus São João Evangelista e da Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The present work intended to clarify how agroecology is worked in the Agronomy courses of the Federal Institute of Minas Gerais - São João Evangelista Campus (IFMG-SJE) and the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ). The general objective was to evaluate the relationship of students and teachers with agroecology. For data collection we used: (a) pedagogical projects of the courses (PPCs) and course completion works (TCCs) of the years 2015, 2016 and 2017; (b) questionnaires for teachers from all periods and students from the final periods of the IFMG-SJE and UFRRJ Higher Agronomy Courses who agreed to participate in the research. In the analysis of the PPCs of the IFMG and UFRRJ Agronomy courses, there were different approaches to agroecology: in IFMG-SJE there is a compulsory course that works on the subject while at UFRRJ there is a larger number of disciplines working on the subject and address agroecological practices. Concerning PPCs, UFRRJ Agronomy course had a concern with environmental and social issues; At IFMG-SJE, the concern to train professionals aware of environmental issues became more evident. With the analysis of the TCCs, it was possible to identify that, on average, the studies that approached agroecology was low; TCCs from 2017 of IFMG-SJE stood out in comparison to the other years analyzed in the two researched institutions. Importantly, despite the low number, the studies showed general environmental concern, presenting positive results for agroecology. Research, extension, TCC reports and internships focused on agroecology are produced in both institutions according to questionnaires applied to teachers and students. It was also noticed that there is a concern of participants with environmental issues, although students have presented knowledge about agroecology, in general, without deepening.