Educação para a sustentabilidade: o Programa Nacional Escolas Sustentáveis no contexto de escolas públicas de Manaus - Amazonas

Abstract

Environmental issues have become increasingly relevant in political, economic and social debates and discussions. In the educational sphere, it has been the subject of attention due to the need for training to develop values and attitudes consistent with environmental sustainability. From this perspective, the question that guided the research was to analyze the extent to which the National Sustainable Schools Program (PNES) impacted schools in becoming sustainable educational territories in the city of Manaus. This is a qualitative research, descriptive in nature, consisting of three stages: bibliographical research on the international experiences of Education for Sustainability (EpS) and the PNES actions that were carried out in the country; documentary research in which we analyzed the socio-environmental dimension contained in the Action Plans of 58 schools participating in the PNES in Manaus; and, field research carried out in two state schools through interviews with three teachers, in order to understand the process of implementing and developing the PNES in public schools in Manaus/Amazonas. The research data was analyzed using the Content Analysis method. In this context, the main objective of the thesis was to understand how the PNES contributed to participating public schools becoming sustainable educational territories in Manaus. The results showed that school management has great relevance as an integrative element and can boost education for sustainability (EpS) actions. We also identified the need to strengthen the planning and development of socio-environmental practices from an interdisciplinary perspective and the pedagogical use of schools' educational territories, bearing in mind that it is often a challenge to integrate the theme of sustainability into curricular content in an approach comprehensive coverage of socio-environmental issues. The PNES made important contributions: it encouraged the school community to learn more about the learning territory and its surroundings, encouraging a more frequent inclusion of socio-environmental issues in pedagogical dynamics and enabling the development of a sense of belonging by encouraging active participation in actions that sought effective solutions for socio-environmental problems. An important aspect to highlight is that even after the completion of the PNES, schools have made efforts to continue developing sustainability actions in their pedagogical practices. Thus, we conclude that the school becomes a sustainable educational territory as a result of a continuous process of collective construction of socio-environmental sustainability. Therefore, we argue from the research data that the PNES was an important educational public policy for the development of socio-environmental pedagogical practices and that education for sustainability makes it possible to overcome the society-nature dichotomy, contributing to the engagement in the construction of educational territories sustainable.