A formação do técnico em agropecuária, na perspectiva agroecológica

Abstract

This study was carried out to understand in which extent agroecology is part of the education of the agricultural technicians at Barão de Langsdorff Agronomic Integrated Education Center (CEIA). This is an agricultural school located in the municipality of Magé, in the State of Rio de Janeiro. The study evaluated the students of three grades, graduates and teachers of CEIA. The research showed, through interviews and questionnaires, that teachers and students understand agroecology simply as a set of environmental production and preservation practices, lacking a broader dimension of agroecology as a science based on a novel set of paradigms. The students had difficulty in discriminating agroecology from organic agriculture; there is a single class in the curriculum focusing on agroecology in the first year, showing an important gap of the course. The students and teachers also pointed out that the school has no relation with the local community, which makes students dissatisfied. The graduates, for the most part, work as agricultural technicians and some currently work with agroecological themes in Rio de Janeiro state. The graduates that during their training, social issues were little exploited, transversal subjects were treated only superficially, and the technical subjects predominated. This study made it possible to observe that education given at CEIA, lacks a real emphasis on agroecology, even though agroecology is the ‘slogan’ of its educational proposal. However, technicians formed at CEIA are able to act as professionals on agroecology.