Caracterización de los procesos educomunicativos de las instituciones educativas que conforman la red de proyectos ambientales escolares (red PRAE)

Abstract

Introduction. Dynamizing environmental projects in schools and particularly the collaborative activities within a network of educative institutions, requires the implementation of educommunicative processes able to go beyond the conventional schemes usually dedicated to just inform about issues such as global warmth or to boost solid waste separation activities, aiming to advance towards actions that really transform the schools and their contexts. Objective. Characterize the educommunicative processes in the educative institutions from the Aburra Valley´s Metropolitan Area that participated in the Network for Environmental Projects in Schools (PRAE Network). Materials and methods. This research work was developed under a mixed methodological design. The method defined was the study of cases and the techniques to construct the data were a survey applied to 63 participants, three focus groups and five in-depth interviews. Results.The teachers who participated in the research and belong to the PRAE Network do not know the Educommunication concept and, therefore, are not familiar with its theoretical and methodological principles. Besides, even though they are conscious of the importance of transversality, the PRAE is still being excuted from the natural sciences area. Conclusions. The communicative processes are centered on conventional strategies (no TICs are being included) and the inter institutional initiatives are just those convened from governmental projects. There is no evidence of either a positioned communication media or of any educommunicative action specifically intend for environmental purposes. Finally, as recommendations and possible future research lines, it is proposed that the environmental network goes beyond the school environment and also includes other members from the community in general.