Educação Ambiental: concepções e formação continuada docente no CEFET-RS

Abstract

O presente estudo objetivou identificar conceitos e concepções dos docentes dos cursos superiores de tecnologia na área ambiental do CEFET-RS sobre educação ambiental e meio ambiente, ciência e tecnologia, saberes e afetos e também, relacionar essas concepções ao seu processo de formação continuada, na abordagem curricular desses cursos. Este estudo manteve coerência com a linha de pesquisa em Educação Ambiental Currículo e Formação de Professores do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Ambiental da FURG. Analisou-se, através de questionários (fechado e aberto) e de entrevista semi-estruturada a possibilidade de conexão entre educação ambiental, meio ambiente e a relação ser humano e natureza para atingir uma proposta integrada na solução dos problemas ambientais. Implícito no estudo, através dos procedimentos de coleta de dados, a pretensão de provocar uma reflexão crítica, realizada junto aos docentes em seu local de trabalho, nos cursos de Gestão Ambiental e Saneamento Ambiental do CEFET-RS. As categorias mais evidentes neste estudo foram educação ambiental, educação profissional, ensino profissional, formação continuada, currículo, saberes e afetos. As análises deixaram clara a dicotomia entre teoria e prática, ciências sociais e ciências exatas, sociedade e natureza na concepção dos docentes investigados. As concepções expressas de meio ambiente e educação ambiental revelam a complexidade de sua aceitação em uma instituição de ensino com ênfase na prática. O estudo, baseado em uma educação ambiental como forma abrangente de educação, ao atingir os docentes, encaminha para que estes também venham a participar de um novo patamar no constatações que sinalizam para a compreensão da educação ambiental e daquilo que possa definir sua identidade no interior do CEFET-RS.

The present study aimed to identify concepts and conceptions of teachers/professors from the Environmental Technology Undergraduate courses at the “Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica do Rio Grande do Sul” (CEFET-RS) about environmental education and environment, science and technology, knowledge and affection, as well as to relate these conceptions to the continuing education process in the curricular approach of such courses. This study kept coherence with the research field in Environmental Education – Curriculum and Teacher Education of the Postgraduate Program in Environmental Education at the “Fundação Universidade de Rio Grande” (FURG). I analyzed, through questionnaires (close and open) and semi-structured interviews, the possibility of connection between environmental education, environment and the relation human being and nature in order to reach an integrated proposal towards the solution of environmental problems. Implicit in the study, through the data collection procedures, it is the intention to promote critical reflection among in-service teachers/professors from the Environmental Management and Environmental Sanitation courses, just in their place of work. The most evident categories in this investigation were environmental education, professional education, professional teaching, continuing education, curriculum, knowledge and affections. The analyses made clear the dichotomies between theory and practice, social sciences and exact sciences, society and nature, in the conceptions of the investigated teachers/professors. Their conceptions over environment and environmental education revealed the complexity of their acceptance in an institution traditionally based on practice. The study based on an environmental education as an ample form of education inspire teachers to engage in a new approach in the technological teaching in the environmental area, through continuing education, establishing a more participative and permanent pedagogical process in the institution and reinforcing a continuing critical action of awareness taken upon the educational and environmental problematic. Taking this into account, the information obtained through this research point to the fact that Environmental Technology Undergraduate courses should promote spaces for political-pedagogical discussions over the relation human/nature in order to make interdisciplinary possible in pedagogical practices as a way of curricular reconstruction as well as in affective peer approximation, through ethic and the new environmental rationality, also favoring the formation of collectives in such courses. Possibility transversally constructed to the higher education teaching, encouraging teachers’ continuing education under the perspective of pedagogical and environmental aspects. These are findings that point out to the understanding of environmental education and what can define its identity inside the institution where the data were collected.