Educação ambiental no curso de Licenciatura em Química: as concepções dos professores

Abstract

This essay is the result of the pre-project presented and developed in the Postgraduate Program of Environmental Education, an Specialization Program of the Rural Sciences Centre in Federal University of Santa Maria, of the research line Education, Society and Culture. Such study was developed in order to understand the scope and meanings of Environmental Education for professors of the Chemistry Teaching Course in UFSM. The justification to develop such study was the need to analyse the insertion of Environmental Education in the conception of professors, therefore stimulating new perceptions and reflections on such theme in the Course. Considering the Brazilian Environmental Education context, there is a growing body of diverse studies, counterposing reductionist Environmental Education, which does not consider social questions: the Critic Environmental Education and the Transforming one. Critic Environmental Education is constituted, on the education field, as the junction between Environmental Education and the critical thinking. The main aim of Transforming Environmental Education is to revolutionize individuals in their subjectivities and practices, considering the existing social and natural structures. The method employed followed a qualitative approach, that is, it privileged the conscious and subjective aspects of the professors who participated on the research. Instruments used for data collection were the questionnaire, the Political Pedagogic Project of the Course and the Curricular Directions, aiming to register the representations and perceptions of the professors concerning Environmental Education. Analysis of data revealed that these professionals, when asked about their role in society as educators of conscientiousness and new ways of thinking, worry about the social and cultural aspects that constitute the undegraduate student/citizen who is enrolled on Chemistry Course.