Educação socioambiental : uma análise das atitudes de estudantes do ensino fundamental

Abstract

The importance of the school’s role in shaping attitudes based on ethics of environmental sustainability is being increasingly recognized. Notwithstanding, we find little scientific literature focused on the attitude development, the more common being the concern with the formation of concepts. This study investigated the effects of the environmental education as it is worked at school, having the social and environmental conception as a reference, on the attitudes of eighty-four (84) students from 6th to 9th grade in elementary school. The locus of the research was a private school in Recife , attended mostly by students from upper middle class. For the construction of the data, a participant observation was carried out, consisting of three steps: (a) observation of the attitudes of students in the school environment, (b) at an educational tour, and (c) during a lecture followed by discussion. At the same time, a document analysis was undertaken, aiming the teaching plans of the surveyed teachers and the school’s Pedagogical Political Project - PPP -. Besides, five teachers, five students and the course coordinator were interviewed. The data were analyzed under the light of the theoretical framework of authors such as Carvalho and Loureiro, starting from the premise of a socio-environmental education that aims the emancipatory formation of the student through the construction of conceptual contents, both attitudinal and procedural, in the school environment. Overall, students' attitudes were not consistent with the socioenvironmental proposal. We recorded episodes of improper disposal of garbage, excessive consumerism and waste, despite their conceptual knowledge of this proposal. Although present in the competencies and skills contained in the lesson plans for teachers and in the school’s Pedagogical Political Project, through concepts related to the environment, the procedural and attitudinal contents have not been satisfactorily addressed, although recently this panorama may be changing, due to the activities of the Center for Environmental Education , the Sustainability Brigade and educational tours restricted to the disciplines of science and geography. The school’s proposal seemed fragmented instead of the desired cross-disciplinary perspective. Furthermore, we did not find the involvement with other socialization environments of the students (family, friends, etc..). We strongly recommend the adoption, by the schools, of an approach that in addition to conceptual learning, turns to the formation of environmental attitudes that consider the interdependence of economic, social and political issues and that is consistent with the rational use of natural resources.