As representações sociais de professores sobre educação ambiental e os projetos relacionados à conferência nacional infantojuvenil pelo meio ambiente

Abstract

Environmental problems afflicting society today have favored the growth of environmental movements and interest in environmental preservation. In this scenario, some public policies have been implemented in order to involve all segments of society in the search for solutions to the existing problems. Among these policies, we can highlight the National Conference of Children for the Environment, which aims hear teenagers, ensuring the right to participate in this for the construction of a sustainable Brazil. The environmental education activities (EA) related to the Conference that are developed in schools are mediated by teachers, however this mediation is not neutral; it is influenced by the social representations that teachers share about the object or situation focused. Therefore, the first step in understanding how environmental education is developed in schools should be the identification of social representations that the subjects involved in the educational processes share on EA. This study aimed to know the social representations that teachers from the final years of elementary school in the city of Fenix - PR share on Environmental Education, and the relationship of these representations with projects related to the National Conference of Children for the Environment that are developed in schools. To achieve the proposed objective, there was a case study in which the researcher was inserted in schools and sought to ascertain data that could be relevant to the study. In addition, we used the free recall of technical words and semi-structured interviews to know the representations that teachers shared in relation to environmental education. All data collected followed a qualitative procedure, through a content analysis. The results showed that the environmental education activities are included in primary education schools, and they are intensified with the holding of the National Conference of Children for the Environment. In addition, it was observed that the social representations of teachers are guided by an idealistic representation of EA, in which value awareness and action. However, this awareness is seen as arising only the passage of information. This same representation was present in the projects that teachers developed related to the Conference, which allows us to say that there is a relationship between the representations of teachers about EA and the projects developed by them.