Critical Environmental Education Research Articles

Depoliticization and marginalized critical environmental education: curriculum revision for empowering students as environmental agents

Depoliticization and marginalized critical environmental education: curriculum revision for empowering students as environmental agents

Portraiture methodology for environmental justice pedagogy and activist praxis

The purpose of this theoretical paper is to provide a praxis oriented example of a qualitative methodology called portraiture for environmental justice and critical environmental education. The five essential elements for a portraiture study are context, voice, relationship, emergent themes, and aesthetic whole. Context is the frame, thus environmental exclusion and the field’s exclusionary past is first examined. Portraiture gives back power and voice to people with marginalized identities in the environmental space, which includes the researcher’s voice as a fourth-generation Japanese American woman, and the voices of other diverse environmental educators and activists. The aesthetic whole demonstrates the importance of attending to voice in environmental education and shows portraiture is fundamental to understanding diverse educators’ perceptions of their environmental science agency, which is defined as “learning science while doing science, which can foster environmental stewardship, civic participation, and meaningful science learning” (Ballard et al., 2018, p. 6).

FÁRMACOS NA PANDEMIA DA COVID-19: UMA TEMÁTICA PARA A EDUCAÇÃO AMBIENTAL CRÍTICA NO ENSINO DE QUÍMICA ANALÍTICA

PHARMACEUTICALS IN THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A THEME TO CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION ON ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY TEACHING. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the pursuit of a cure for the disease resulted in an excessive consumption of various pharmaceuticals, even after their inefficacy had been scientifically demonstrated. This scenario highlights the urgency of educational initiatives that improve students’ critical thinking and promote awareness of indiscriminate use of pharmaceuticals and its environmental and social implications. This research described the educational initiative “Pharmaceuticals in the COVID-19 pandemic” based on the study case method, implemented at an analytical chemistry class, and analyzed its potential on promoting Critical Environmental Education through a content analysis guided by the indicators proposed by Luz and Tonso. Students were divided into groups and studied different cases about pharmaceuticals featured in the media during the pandemic. They were expected to gather relevant data regarding the case scenario; to take a position on a socio-environmental dilemma; propose an analytical chromatographic methodology for the pharmaceutical in the case and present their results in a final report. The educational initiative was considered aligned with Critical Environmental Education principals due to the presence of six out of the seven indicators. As a future perspective, we aim to optimize the educational initiative in order to include all the indicators and students’ suggestions.

Critical environmental education with family farmers in Brazil: The first steps of an action research against pesticide contamination

This study aims at the formation of knowledge about the fight against risk situations by the use of pesticides in plantations. It was held in a community of family farmers, located in the district of Joanapolis, in the state of Goias, Brazil. It consists of an action research developed by a center of research that seeks to favor the empowerment of the subjects in the face of risk situations. The study is carried out at farmers' production sites and at the rural school where their children study, being carried out by the students of the Chemistry Major Degree at IFG – Anapolis Campus. By the use of qualitative instruments the main adverse situations in this context were identified and we report actions of the Center of Research. The critical perspective of environmental education is the theoretical and methodological basis assumed for intervention. Considerations about the initial process of intervention are presented.

Decolonizing education in Latin America: critical environmental and intercultural education as an indigenous pluriversal alternative

Following an argument that the 2030 Agenda consolidates a neoliberal hegemonic ‘development’ system, we analyze how SDG4 deepens an instrumental and utilitarian ‘education for sustainable development’. Alternatively, the Epistemologies of the South are presented as ways of knowing that are capable of accommodating a critical environmental and intercultural education (CEIE). Under a qualitative methodology, two extensive ethnographic studies were carried out, based on convivial individual and collective interviews with indigenous peoples. In addition, documentary analysis was carried out. This strategy made it possible to analyze two different cases of intercultural education (one of ‘that which is’ and the other of ‘that which is not’) in Latin America: the model of intercultural bilingual education of the schools for the qom in Rosario, and the autonomous education model of the Zapatista schools in Chiapas. We show how the experience of Zapatista’s ‘true education’ allows us to look beyond ‘development’ and ‘schooling’, to where life is a melding of ecosystem(s) and culture(s).

Critical Environmental Education in Latin America from a Socio-Environmental Perspective: Identity, Territory, and Social Innovation

The objective of this study was to contemplate the role of critical environmental education in Latin America from a socio-environmental perspective and explore how environmental problems associated with justice in territories and communities face the dynamics of the complexity of the effects of climate change. They modify the economic and social dynamics that little by little strip communities of their identity and deepen inequality. Selection and recovery of the articles in the bibliographic review, published between 2018 and 2022, used to determine the state of the question were carried out with the search chain integrated by the following keywords: critical environmental education, territory, and social innovation, which make up an analysis carried out using hermeneutic phenomenology from a socio-environmental perspective. The main finding is that critical environmental education in Latin America reveals historical distortions, forms of colonization, and modes of production associated with the exploitation of nature that deepen extreme poverty. On the other hand, the region’s contradictions contribute to understanding the territory and identifying processes of social innovation that favor community life, recognizing new ways of being and living together in Latin America, whose cultural dimension and belonging follow the logic governed by the principles of binomial biodiversity and economy.

The pedagogical praxis in critical environmental education: potentialities in different contexts

The research aimed to understand the pedagogical praxis in Environmental Education, from a critical-emancipatory perspective, in different contexts. The research was developed through a qualitative approach, with bibliographic study on the theme in books, articles and dissertations. The need for the implementation of effective public policies and continuous training of education professionals with the theme of Environmental Education can be evidenced, so that local needs can be transformed. It can be concluded that the pedagogical praxis of Environmental Education in a critical perspective is an important and urgent proposal, in order to develop an integrated understanding of the environment, with mobilizing social practices and strengthening of critical, awareness, participation in environmental preservation actions, aiming to build a socially and environmentally more just, humane and sustainable society.

Tendências e concepções de educação ambiental das ações cadastradas no SisEA/MS e realizadas em Ladário/MS

Abstract This investigation seeks to analyze the concepts of Environmental Education (EE) in the proposals registered in the State System of Information on Environmental Education of Mato Grosso do Sul (SisEA/MS), carried out in the municipality of Ladário, State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. The research with a quantitative-qualitative approach deals with the document analysis of 27 proposals. The quantitative nature involved the evaluation of indicators: status of proposals, type of action, themes and target audience. The qualitative approach was given by the Discourse Analysis (DA), evidencing the conceptions in EE. The conservative aspect was predominant in the actions, with a view to a behavioral change of the individual, disregarding the socio-political dimension. The inferences brought here show ways to overcome practices that follow conservative trends in EE, in the search for practices that seek to transform reality. It is necessary to (re)think the methodological procedures of the actions, considering the theoretical foundations, themes and target audience for a critical and transformative EE.

Educação Ambiental nas Lareiras do Capital: uma crítica à agenda neoliberal

ABSTRACT This article aims to discuss the relationship between neoliberalism and environmental education. Since the 1970s, the neoliberal agenda has modified economic, political, cultural, social, and educational structures in the countries that adopted it. Environmental education was not left out of these changes, becoming, in many cases, a tool that instrumentalizes nature and simplifies environmental problems. The theoretical-methodological perspective used in this text is based on sociological and historical analyses of neoliberalism, the crises of capitalism, and aspects of critical environmental education. The results presented revolve around the discussion on citizenship and political practices, in addition to the need for incisive decisions on environmental problems.

UNIDADES TEMÁTICAS: POSSIBILIDADES PARA O DESENVOLVIMENTO DOS PRINCÍPIOS DA EDUCAÇÃO AMBIENTAL CRÍTICA

THEMATIC UNITS: POSSIBILITIES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRINCIPLES OF CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION. This work qualitatively analyzes the productions resulting from an extension course, developed with 24 teachers in initial and continuing training. This course was constituted by the (re)construction of knowledge related to Environmental Education (EE), in its critical aspect, to promote the debate on socio-environmental problems, allied to the theme of perfluorinated compounds, as a way of inserting these discussions in basic education, through the construction of teaching materials in the format of Thematic Units (TU). Thus, the objective of this study is to analyze the four TU produced by the course participants, in order to classify such productions supported by indicators and parameters of critical environmental education. Thus, it was possible to observe that most productions significantly contemplated these indicators, demonstrating that the activities and discussions developed enabled teachers to build a critical view of socio-environmental issues and perceptions of the possibility of developing them in the school environment.

The three pedagogical moments and the portfolio methodology: analysis of a pedagogical practice aimed at achieving a critical environmental education

The objective of this article is to reflect on the joint action of the pedagogical dynamics of the Three Pedagogical Moments and the Portfolio methodology in the development of a pedagogical practice that involved environmental education. This work was conducted in a public school in the city of Curitiba, in times of social distancing due to the COVID-191 pandemic. The research was produced in a qualitative perspective of pedagogical intervention type considering the research corpus constituted from the pedagogical practice "waste generation and consumerism". In the process of Textual Discourse Analysis, eighty-four meaning units emerged from the research corpus, providing the formation of eleven initial categories, and from their congruent elements, three final categories were formed, these being: (1) The student's understanding, as a future building technician, of his/her role in building a sustainable society; (2) The student's understanding of the participation of science, technology and human beings in the structuring of a new culture of consumption for society and (3) Indications of the student's autonomy. The dialogues established by the Three Pedagogical Moments and the Portfolio stimulated the student's reflections about the reality of the society in which he is inserted and this dialog offered an opportunity to deepen the reflections, respecting the other and developing the student's understanding of his role as a human being and future professional in the construction of a sustainable society, besides making him realize the participation of science, technology and people in the structuring of a new culture of consumption for society.

A Political Ecology of Ecologies

In this short paper I discuss a day spent with a group of students in Glen Almond, Perthshire, in 2018. As I write this now, in 2022, I have the opportunity to situate my present thinking in the story and to think with the idea of a political ecology of ecologies, derived from an immanent ethics. I speculate that competing ecologies are themselves ecological as they perform materially in the world, and that creative research of the everyday enactments of multiple ecologies provides a form of critical environmental and social education.

Projeto de Educação Ambiental desenvolvido por estudantes do ensino médio no ensino remoto e híbrido.

This report presents an Environmental Education project developed jointly by students-teachers and teacher-student, throughout a school semester, in 2021, in the context of Emergency Remote Education and Hybrid Education, at a private high school with social purposes. Thus, the objective of this experience report is to disseminate a practice aligned with a critical perspective of education. The project, guided by the perspectives of Liberating Education, Critical Environmental Education and Problem-posing Methodology with the Arch of Maguerez, culminated in the investigation of Generative Themes in micro and macro scale and the production of educommunicative materials, digitally disseminated by the collective. By analyzing the process, we consider that it was possible to develop a critical educational process, based on dialogue and problem-posing, despite the adversities imposed by Remote and Hybrid Education, and by the pandemic. Furthermore, we consider that it was possible to promote a reflection not only by the students-teachers themselves and the teacher-student involved, but to expand and transform it into praxis, through Educommunication, amplifying its reach and power to transform reality. We also consider important and necessary the experience of appropriating Information and Communication Technologies – dominated by the hegemonic discourse of technical-instrumental rationality and technological determinism – through a critical perspective.

Ecopedagogy and Pedagogy of Meaning

The main objective of this paper is to contribute to the realization of a critical Environmental Education for students and teachers of High School, through the studies of Logotherapy/Logoeducation. The research has a qualitative approach and was carried out with a literature review. This was based on works by the creator of Logotherapy, Viktor Frankl, authors who relate it to Education, as well as authors who support Ecopedagogy. We expect to reach the goals of reflection on pedagogical practices in relation to Environmental Education, thus being able to contribute, in fact, to the formation of political and ecological subjects prepared for the challenges of this millennium.

Developing know-how to deal with trash

This paper aims to analyze a pedagogical practice seeking to understand its potential for promoting a critical reflection on the topic of Waste. The practice was developed within the scope of the discipline of Science and Decolonizing Cultures offered in the Remote Teaching model, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, in the Graduate Program in Scientific and Environmental Education of a Federal University. For this, evaluations made by scholarship holders of the Institutional Program of Initiation to Teaching scholarships were taken as data, who after watching the video, answered the following question: what are the positive points and points to be improved in practice. Therefore, this work fits into the Qualitative Research Methodology and the responses were analyzed using Content Analysis and, more specifically, thematic categorization. After the analysis, it was possible to find three categories which are: “Poem as an enhancer of practice”, “Transdisciplinary approach” and “Problematization”. Thus, it is possible to consider that the practice fulfilled its role to promote a critical reflection on the theme of garbage since it was based on Critical Environmental Education and brought art to problematize issues related to the theme, causing contextualized reflections that transcend how the theme is commonly addressed.

Climate Change and Environmental Education

This article sought to analyze the Climate Action Plan for the City of São Paulo 2020-2050 (PlanClima SP), published in June 2021, in dialogue with the documents: Curriculum of the City of Natural Sciences and 2030 Agenda. In a critical perspective of Environmental Education, the PlanClima SP establishes some actions towards zero carbon in 2050. In this sense, the objective of the study was to analyze the potentialities presented in the document for the development of sustainable pedagogical practices. The methodology selected for this study was qualitative, carried out with the analysis of the cited documents based on the concept of the Critical Environmental Education. The results found demonstrate practical possibilities for actions aimed at training critical and reflective students for a sustainable development. The Environmental Education actions proposed in the analyzed material point to the modification and construction of behaviors and attitudes aimed at the culture of environmental preservation. It is concluded that the discussion about carbon emissions in a critical and conscious way, through pedagogical practices, is powerful in environmental preservation and sustainability.

Diálogos sobre educação ambiental com escolares: um enfoque na educação ambiental crítica

A educação ambiental se apresenta como uma importante forma de intervenção social, buscando um diálogo constante entre sociedade, meio ambiente, cultura, política e economia, auxiliando no desenvolvimento de um pensar crítico e reflexivo dos sujeitos, para as (con)vivências sociais. Partindo da necessidade da abordagem de uma educação ambiental crítica, este artigo busca analisar e discutir um momento dialógico com alunos do sexto ano de uma escola estadual de um município da região noroeste do estado do Rio Grande do Sul, evidenciando a importância das trocas de saberes, vivências e experiências, com vistas a transformar o modo de agir e pensar na sociedade. A metodologia baseia-se numa abordagem qualitativa, por meio de um estudo de caso, cuja a análise dos dados pautou-se na Análise Textual Discursiva. Durante a atividade dialógica, o professor-mediador proferiu diversos questionamentos aos alunos, os quais responderam conforme os seus conhecimentos. Foi possível perceber com as respostas dos alunos uma abordagem conservadora de educação ambiental, relacionando meio ambiente aos rios, florestas e animais. Por meio desta atividade, observa-se a importância do professor no contexto escolar, visando (des)construir conceitos e permitir um (re)pensar nas questões emergentes que estão presentes na contemporaneidade.

Limites e possibilidades da Educação Ambiental Crítica: um olhar para o licenciamento ambiental

RESUMO: Este estudo busca compreender uma parte das complexas que estão entrelaçadas na Gestão Ambiental Pública (GAP), princípio a Educação Ambiental Crítica, como instrumento do Licenciamento Ambiental Federal de petróleo e gás (P&G), que atende às comunidades de pesca tradicionais em condição de vulnerabilidade socioambiental. Nesse sentido, o objetivo do texto é discutir os propósitos da Educação Ambiental Crítica no Licenciamento Ambiental de P&G, a partir das ações do PEA Pescarte na comunidade de Farol de São Thomé – Campos dos Goytacazes (RJ). A revisão de literatura, a aplicação de questionários e a observação participantes foram adotados como procedimentos metodológicos. O estudo evidenciou a importância da participação no protagonismo da marisqueira na tomada de decisão e ocupação das arenas de poder.
 PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Projeto de Educação Ambiental, participação popular, pescadores artesanais

State of the art on critical environmental education at the Research Meeting on Environmental Education

Critical environmental education [CEE] is presented as an important form of social intervention, since it helps in the promotion and understanding of socio-environmental problems in their multiple dimensions. Thus, in this article, the research on CEE, presented at the Research Meeting on Environmental Education [RMEE], in the time period between 2001 and 2019, was analyzed, taking into account its possibilities as a means of scientific communication, since it allows the debate about environmental education and its connections in the contemporary world. The methodology was based on a state-of-the-art research. 898 works were found in the archives of the RMEE. Forty-one papers with the term critical environmental education in their title were analyzed. For the analysis, descriptors and categories were created. Discursive textual analysis was adopted to interpret the data. In 2017 and 2015, there was the largest number of publications of works related to CEE. It is observed that CEE enables a new perspective on issues related to nature and society, as well as on emerging situations in the contemporary world, through the reflection on the quality of life and actions related to nature and society.

A educação ambiental crítica e significativa para um mundo complexo: uma análise teórica

Resumo: A sociedade contemporânea enfrenta uma crise socioambiental de proporções até hoje não observáveis. O último século acentuou progressivamente a destruição da natureza e estruturou uma desigualdade social de alcance global. O presente artigo objetiva fomentar discussões sobre como a Educação Ambiental pode ser uma ferramenta para se pensar o enfrentamento das problemáticas socioambientais. O caminho metodológico utilizado no artigo é uma análise teórica de referencial bibliográfico. Nota-se que a educação deve se estruturar dentro de uma perspectiva crítica, significativa e complexa, para que o educando seja consciente de sua atuação nas mudanças necessárias em busca de relações, entre o ser humano e a natureza e entre o eu e outro, mais equilibradas. Nesse sentido, se faz necessário um diálogo entre Educação Ambiental Crítica, baseada em autores como Mauro Guimarães, Carlos F.B. Loureiro, entre outros, a Teoria da Aprendizagem Significativa de David Ausubel e o paradigma da complexidade de Edgar Morin, visando instrumentalizar uma prática educativa em Educação Ambiental que seja significativa e atuante na realidade das problemáticas socioambientais da atualidade. Palavras-chave: Formação ambiental crítica. Teoria da Aprendizagem Significativa. Paradigma da complexidade