EDUCAÇÃO AMBIENTAL E ABORDAGEM CTS: CONVERGÊNCIAS PARA O ENSINO DE CIÊNCIAS EM ESCOLAS DE UMA UNIDADE DE CONSERVAÇÃO

Abstract

Currently, socio-environmental scenarios are characterized by the intensification of historical factors, commonly related to the exploitation of natural resources, the extinction of species and traditional populations, the concentration of power, social inequality, and the growing scientific-technological scope. These points, direct or indirect constituents of the serious historical socio-environmental crisis, are reproduced in and by the different social dimensions. A new proposal for Science Teaching, as a tool for socio environmental transformation, which provides for the guarantee of justice and fullness to the different existing living beings, is manifested through the articulation between Critical Environmental Education and the Science, Technology and Society Approach (STS). Supported by this perspective, this study aims to analyze the universe of Environmental Education in the region of the Maracanã Environmental Protection Area, in the municipality of São Luís, Maranhão. In the light of the Environmental Education-STS relations, we seek to include the understanding of the meanings and environmental pedagogical practices in the Science and Biology disciplines and the analysis of the official documents of public policies: the State Environmental Education Plan and the Management Plan for the Environmental Protection Area of the Maracanã region. The study is conducted using a qualitative approach, using semi-structured interviews with Science and Biology teachers from two public schools in the Maracanã Environmental Protection Area (APA). The results of the analysis show emphasis on: the Maracanã APA community and environmental issues; the curriculum and environmental pedagogical practice in Maracanã; and Environment-STS relations. The analysis of documents shows the motivation and recognition of local and problematizing approaches, but there are obstacles in curricular and logistical issues and the shallow understanding of environmental thematic relationships with science and technology in contemporary societies. Despite the support consistent with the official documents, there is a lack of curricular proposals that favor approaches such as critical Environmental Education and the STS Approach at different levels of education, so that Science Teaching contributes to the mitigation of impacts and causes of the existing crisis of civilization.