Educação ambiental e articulações possíveis entre educação formal e não formal na percepção de professores e educadores ambientais em Petrópolis/RJ

Abstract

The present dissertation has the general objective of analyzing the limits and potentialities found in classroom and outside it, respectively in the context of Formal Education and Non-Formal Education in Environmental Education (EA), in the municipality of Petrópolis, based on documentary evidence and interviews with teachers and environmental educators. Faced with the need for EA to develop theories and practices aimed at transforming society in a complex world scenario of globalization, possibilities are seen for initiating a more consistent work from the local to the global, understanding the locus of production of knowledge in EA to make a greater social intervention viable according to pre- established hegemonic standards. The research is based on the analysis, mainly, of the characteristics in EE found by Carlos Frederico Bernardes Loureiro and Philippe Pomier Layrargues that point and are guided by three main political-pedagogical currents most used in Brazil: the conservationist slope, the pragmatic slope and the critical aspect, the latter being adopted as a point of reference for the discussions of this research, precisely because it proposes a change in social relations. The methodology was structured with a documentary and exploratory research from June 2021 to June 2022, aligned with the theoretical support of a bibliographical review on global and Brazilian environmental policies that gave rise to EE, its concept and most practiced aspects in the country. Through the quantitative/qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews carried out with 10 teachers and 10 experienced environmental educators in Petrópolis, the content of their statements was analyzed to understand EE in this municipality. While the Formal Education teachers pointed to work more on the conservationist side, the Non-Formal Education environmental educators pointed to a praxis with the critical and pragmatic aspects. However, the research revealed conceptual contradictions in relation to these trends in the two fields of Education, Formal and Non-Formal, translating into a view, often distorted, about which environmental issues to work with, which practices to condone and which results to expect. Conflicts and environmental issues experienced in Petrópolis did not translate into background for the theoretical-methodological procedures of EE described by the participants. However, there is a clear vision of the need to build a network between Formal Education and Non-Formal Education, based on public and private support, including a greater offer of continuing education for those involved in Environmental Education in the municipality. This research can contribute both to the empowerment of environmental educators and to the consolidation of possible potentiating partnerships between Formal Education and Non-Formal Education, in the researched municipality, to bring about social and environmental changes.