O perfil dos estudantes das escolas gaúchas frente ao conceito de sustentabilidade: uma análise a partir do interesse e o posicionamento ambiental

Abstract

The environmental theme in Brazil is recognized for its conceptual diversity, widely discussed by scholars in the field, its variations are recurrent in society and denote a fusion of terms used to promote the environment. Currently, environmental education is losing space in information vehicles, educational documents and international projects, making room for the term sustainability. Due to its global relevance, sustainability and environmental problems have generated research on the perceptions of students around the world, among which a project called ROSE "Relevance of Science Education" stands out by addressing important issues about science and technology (S&T). ROSE is an international tool designed to explore and give voice to students' interests, opinions, attitudes, values and future plans. The most recent ROSE data in Brazil show that Brazilian students have a positive relationship with the environment, show interest in environmental problems and recognize their unsustainable practices. In light of this, the research question of this thesis is as follows How do young people from different regions of Rio Grande do Sul express their environmental perceptions on sustainability and environmental challenges? Therefore, the general objective of this research is: to trace the perceptions of students from a representative sample of schools in Rio Grande do Sul on sustainability and environmental challenges present in the answers to the questionnaire ROSESRS 2022. The methodological assumptions are characterized by their quantitative qualitative nature, considering theoretical analyses based on the chosen framework and statistical analyses of the data. The bibliographic research developed is a procedure for constructing theoretical referencing to explain the work and place it in the state of the art, carried out in the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (BDTD) and resulted in a sample of 16 works, from which three categories emerged: I) Approaches to the environmental theme; II) Teaching strategies present in environmental practices; and III) Investigation of the topics of greatest interest. Among the topics of greatest interest to students, socio-environmental and ecological aspects related to the knowledge provided in curricular documents and media resources stand out. The results of the ROSES-RS questionnaire, applied to 1892 students from public schools representing each Regional Development Council (Corede) belonging to the nine Functional Regions (RFs), allow us to infer that according to the students' perceptions, the participants signal that society needs to develop greater interest and be more concerned with protecting the environment, in addition, they express themselves positively regarding the future of the planet, agreeing that each individual can still contribute to protect the Earth. Most of the students claim to know the concept of sustainability in all RFs of the State, furthermore, they recognize that one of the biggest polluters of the environment is industry, and they believe that agriculture and livestock do not have the same environmental impact, which which characterizes a position in all RFs, designing a state profile.