Educação ambiental, representações sociais e formação de professores(as): de volta a escola com Monteiro Lobato

Abstract

This research had as a main purpose to cooperate with the formation of teachers on environmental education, having as a reference for the study and research the dialog with Monteiro Lobato s literary work. The Social Representations Theory was taken, in this research, as an alternative to approach Monteiro Lobato s text, the participant teachers and its environmental Representation. Monteiro Lobato is a classic and that is why his books have become unforgettable. He reaffirms the pleasure of finding out a text which tells us about the human. His readers, children and adults, travel in his books, fell as an integrant part of his fantasy and imaginary kingdom. I, then, try to take the reading not as a mere tool , as a mere resource, but as a place of knowledge, of information necessary for teaching and for educational practice. This way, Literature, in general, and juvenile literature, in particular, emerges as a possible alternative to get in touch with the human subjectivity, with the social excluded, with the different. So, we are able to understand literature as a representation of the world, which depends on the values and experiences of the author and the reader. The studies on representations allow us an approximation with the educators imaginary constructions. That is why becomes important, in teachers formation, to look inside, searching for our own representations. The reflection on our representations also permits to modify actions and attitudes in the world. This transformation of actions and attitudes becomes important once we think about Environmental Education, because it challenges us to elaborate alternatives to deal with the environmental questions more widely, reflecting, for example, on solidarity, respect, cooperation, tolerance. The work with environmental issues on daily basis at school, more than a formal necessity, composes a demand of the contemporary world. A world where, more and more, we are being challenged, all the time, to reflect on our representations about the others. From the discussions with the teachers involved in the research, I was able to conclude that, even though the environmental Representations are extremely related to physical and biological aspects, there is a search for a change, to put into question these representations so consolidated in society. Aspects such as the social, the cultural begin to gain place in the speech and in the imaginary of those teachers. In their talking, I realized that they understand that all of us are unfinished beings and that we learn in the course of our whole life, no matter our age and profession time we have. And that is an excellent start to improve the pedagogical practice. They are teachers aware of their role in society and in the edification of people who think about the political, economical and social facts which happen in their city and in the world.