Uma Experiência em Educação Ambiental: Re-Desenhando o Espaço e as Relações Escolares

Abstract

This dissertation consists of an attempt to systematize and analyze an empirical experience of development of a Project on Environmental Education within a municipal public school in João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil. If involves the quest for and theoretical reflection on the methodology of environmental education developed in a context of relational and material difficulties, and high environmental damage. The methodology of the project was participant investigation of school life during the period from February 2001 until May 2002. Initially, the dissertation presents a brief discussion of environmental issues in order to situate the emergence of environmental education. Then it presents the context of the educational project and its methodological development, which constitutes the specific object of description and analysis. The project s activities included reflexive investigation about the ethics of eco-relations, re-organization of the school space, promenade-classes, photography workshops, drawing and writing, all developed through a ludic-interactive constructivist approach, emphasizing interdisciplinary collective learning. Results included physical and social changes of the school environment and interpersonal relations, evidenced through interview statements and photographs. Major results and products were a first reader about the mangrove area next to the school, the artistic painting of the school s walls, the implementation of a garden, the exhibition of the First Knowledge Fair, with the participation of the whole school and community members. The investigation about the practical and theoretical challenges and the alternatives created in order to face the difficulties encountered in the implementation of the Environmental Education Project within the school was based on the conceptions of self-eco-organization of Edgar Morin and systems theory of Fritjof Capra. This work intends to contribute to the improvement of methodologies of Environmental Education within schools, emphasizing a holistic conception of education and the ethical and psychosocial implications that are found lacking in the initiatives developed in this field