História de vida: uma possibilidade de pesquisa na educação ambiental

Abstract

This paper refers to the research carried out to write a thesis in the Master´s Program in Environmental Education at Fundação Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, RS, which aims at investigating the process that constitutes an environmental educator by using the method called Lafe History. In this research, we present and interprete Carla´s Life History: she is an Environmental Educator who works in a non-governmental organization called NEMA – Núcleo de Educação e Monitoramento Ambiental, an institution that deals with environmental education and monitoring. By using Life History – the uniqueness of subject´s history – it is viable to know and understand universality, to split from and denounce scientific neutrality, to focus on subjectivity and to build and discuss the social relation between the reseacher and the subject. Taking into consideration that the subject´s constitution happens in the social relations in a certain society, it was possible to perceive, in the Life History, the interactions, experiences, needs, lacks, and memories that have influenced the process that constitutesher as an environmental educator. In this paper, we present the importance of a research of the Life History type in the field of education, mainly its contributions to Environmental Education, and expose its main characteristics and its scientific relevance by focusing on its possibilities (contributions) and its challenges (difficulties). Besides, we present the methological description carried out in the thesis that originated this paper.