Análise sobre a Concepção da Educação Ambiental nas escolas públicas do Alto Solimões – AM

Abstract

Environmental Education (EA) is defined as the process that seeks to develop a population that is aware and concerned about the environment and the problems associated with them. A population that has knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivations and commitments to work, individually and collectively, in the search for solutions to existing problems. In this way, the objective was to analyze the conception of Environmental Education in public schools in Alto Solimões – AM. The research was carried out in the municipalities of Atalaia do Norte, Benjamin Constant, São Paulo de Olivença and Tabatinga, located in the interior of the state of Amazonas belonging to the Mesoregion of Southwest Amazonense and Microregion of Alto Solimões, in state public schools located in the urban area , taking a qualitative approach. Analyzing in this way, the aspects that characterize the pedagogical practice of EE in schools, considered an instrument for the preparation and adaptation of individuals in society, participant observation and semi-structured interviews were used, after presenting the project and the Informed Consent Form (TCLE) , which was delivered to the target audience (teachers) who work in schools. The selected teachers work in different teaching modalities, have undergraduate and postgraduate training in different areas, making up the sampling frame with 69 teachers. Although each municipality presents different realities, when it comes to the educational area, Alto Solimões schools in the state network follow a standard, as they are governed by the Amazonas Curriculum Framework. When asked about the definition and purpose of EA, it was related to sustainability, preservation, awareness, environment, care, teaching, life change, transformation. From which the categories that corresponded to the following EE visions in Sustainability, Environment and Education by municipality were configured. The teaching staff of schools generally has a fragmented training, limited by specific disciplines, which use academic knowledge as a basis, restricted in most cases to the theoretical and Cartesian field, which makes it difficult to achieve the systemic understanding that EA requires. , consequently limiting its performance. The main challenges were identified, as well as some possibilities for the insertion of the critical perspective of EA in schools. Pointing out the perspective of emancipatory Critical EA in Tabatinga, pragmatic EA in Atalaia do Norte and São Paulo de Olivença, conservative EA in Benjamin Constant, which makes it an obstacle to the insertion of critical EA that requires a political positioning for the treatment of environmental theme, anchored in critical theories in the last three municipalities, considering the analyzes of textbooks and speeches during the interviews. It is necessary to open a discussion about EE applied at school, clarifying that training actions for environmental educators are isolated, not due to a lack of initiatives, but of policies that truly value the importance of EE in the school context.