A educação ambiental na formação docente: o caso de uma faculdade do sul de Minas

Abstract

By means of Environmental Education (EE) seeks to form a new awareness of values, respect for human beings and nature at the same time realizes that man, woman and nature are integral parts of a whole. Thus, in this study the objective was to analyze how a Training Course in Environmental Education has contributed to the teacher training of the Pedagogy of a Faculty from southern of Minas Gerais, since the concern turns to the initial teachers’ training. Working environmental education in teacher education contributes to the critical formation of these professionals in front of the problems that the current society is facing. It was conducted a case study of qualitative approach, with allowance critical and reflective theoretical framework of the Environmental Education inserted in teacher education. To data collect were analyzed the texts produced when was performed a forum about Critical Environmental Education, reports and questionnaires answered by the course participants. Data interpretation was based on the procedures of content analysis. Eighteen students of the Pedagogy of a Faculty from southern of Minas Gerais of an EE course offered by the Extension Department of this Faculty participated in the survey. It was used as a theoretical framework the works of Carlos Frederico Bernardo Loureiro (2004ab), Izabel Cristina de Moura de Carvalho (2004), Mauro Guimarães (2004, 2007, 2010) and Paulo Freire (2013). The results show the need to restructure some activities and proposals of the Discussion Forums of the course for a better student learning. Since not all participants understood the EE within a critical view. The results also indicate that the proposed course, made by the researcher, brought positive contributions to the Faculty in question, since the Extension Department took the course as a permanent activity of the Pedagogy course linking it to EE discipline. This initiative should be seen as a concern of the Institution to invest in quality training of future educators in relation to EE.