Education Processes Associated With Interventions As A Strategy To Introduce Environmental Education Into The School Context

Abstract

This paper describes an education process in Environmental Education which was carried out from 2005 to 2008 in two interdependent steps: (1) a study group was created to investigate environmental themes which involve teachers and (2) socio-environmental projects were developed in schools. This study aims at analyzing whether there were changes in the teachers’ praxis and in their schools as a result of this process. Taking into account the critical and changing perspective of Environmental Education, we chose participatory action-research as our methodology. Our tools for data collection were participatory observation and interviews which were made with a focal group. Discursive textual analysis was used for analyzing and interpreting the data. This process resulted in: (a) relation between the contents of the syllabus and school life; (b) practical and critical application of the contents developed in this process; (c) connection between contents and the problematization of life; (d) a political-pedagogical project collectively constructed; (e) bonds between school and community; and (f) the concrete possibility that teachers will be able to interweave teaching and research, systematic reflection and their work as teachers. We concluded that education processes in Environmental Education, associated with projects that use participatory action-research, may become a way to introduce environmental themes into school and to change that reality which was under investigation as well.