Social representations and environmental education with a women's group in Manaus, Amazonas-Brazil

Abstract

Since the 1970s, it has been acknowledged that environmental education has an essential role to play in fostering environmental interrelations to promote sustainable societies, however, the theoretical and practical debates within environmental education are ongoing. There is an argument that divergent understandings of the environment need to be interpreted if interventions that are participatory and accommodate participants' environmental frameworks are to be planned. Research was carried out to verify whether the theory of social representations could assist environmental educators in interpreting participants' lifestyles and perceived needs. Accordingly, data were collected on environmental social representations within a group of 10 urban women from Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. The objective was to understand the impact of such representations on the women's environmental awareness and assess the applicability of such data to planning environmental education interventions. The women's social representations were interpreted as being directed by five mediators, namely cultural heritage, identity, the media, religion and situation, which influenced their environmental practices and understandings. The interpretation process also illustrated contradictions in identities and situations that impacted on the women's environmental awareness. Interpretation of social representations offers valuable information about participants' conceptual frameworks and indicators of themes appropriate to planning educational interventions.