Prática docente em escolas particulares de Santa Maria: realidades e desafios da educação ambiental

Abstract

The environmental education is a topic of great relevance in contemporary society due the countless day disasters that are presented by the media. Speaking in terms of environmental education means rethinking the relationships of man with himself, with others and the natural environment. In that case, formal education in educational institutions held in private and public is put before another issue of great importance. Therefore, to work the environmental education in schools is a challenge for the educators. In order to identify the presence of environmental education, its concept and its strengths and weaknesses in teaching in private schools from Santa Maria - RS, south of Brazil, a field research involving teachers working in elementary education series is reported. In this work, a questionnaire aiming to do a diagnostic as the environmental education has been worked with children was performed. Questions about the understanding level, the type of development of activities, such activities are prepared are some questions that indicate that environmental education needs to be understood, thought and rethought by educators, so it can be capable of causing the transformations necessary to change present reality of socioenvironmental crisis. Although present in the classroom, the environmental education still is developed discontinuous, fragmented and not characterizing effectively as a crosscutting theme, as the official Brazilian documents suggest.