Educação ambiental e representações sociais : uma análise transdisciplinar

Abstract

This presents a study about the social representations of college students in what concerns Environmental Education. There were two hundred and sixty-two students participating and they were attending the three last semesters (sixth, seventh, and eighth) of nine different graduation courses at FUNESO, the educational institution to which they belong to and that is located in Olinda, in the state of Pernambuco.The research, which was carried out between August 2003 and July 2004, aimed to identify and analyze the most important issues on Environmental Education according to the students’ point of view. The work was divided into two moments: the data collection that was first accomplished with the salience technique for identifying the recall frequency of the words related to the theme – environmental education. Secondly, the connection technique was used to confirm or not the frequency of recalls found out with the use of the salience technique. The data were systematized by Bardin’s (2004) method of content analysis through the decreasing frequency circle. The research revealed that the students’ social representations were too close to the conservative ecological approach, due to the presence of themes such as recycling and waste as the core of the social representation. When comparing the subjects of the nucleus with the peripherical categories, it became evident that the students pointed them out as less important issues which could privilege politically the relationship between man and nature, permitting to indicate guiding actions to environmental policies.