Racismo ambiental no contexto escolar: perspectivas dos docentes de Biologia da rede estadual do Maranhão

Abstract

The school environment fosters discussions on a wide variety of topics, including environmental issues and social problems faced by a large part of the population. Based on this, the research began with the following question: what are the theoretical knowledge levels of high school Biology teachers regarding environmental racism, and how will continuing education on this topic contribute to confronting racism in the social context? Based on this question, the following general objective was formulated: to analyze the perspectives of Biology teachers on environmental racism in order to develop a guide that can contribute as a didactic-pedagogical resource for high schools in the state of Maranhão. The main bibliographic references used were Carvalho (2014), Herculano (2006), Layrargues (2018), Leff (2001), Acserald (2004), Saviani (2009), Ayres (2012), Reigota (2010), and Pinheiro (2023). The research participants were four high school teachers who teach Biology. The research has a qualitative approach; regarding the research procedures, a case study was conducted. The

research participants were four high school Biology teachers. For data collection, semi- structured interviews were conducted in person at the schools studied. After the

interviews, a pedagogical workshop related to environmental racism in the school context was developed, and then a questionnaire was applied about the contribution of the pedagogical workshop. Seven categories were developed a posteriori from the analysis of the collected data using Bardin's framework. Thus, it was found that there are gaps in the teachers' understanding of environmental racism. The application of the pedagogical workshop on this topic contributed to the teachers' understanding of this type of racism, which disproportionately affects specific population groups, and to its approach in the school context. Therefore, a booklet of pedagogical guidelines was developed, which addresses the topic in question and proposes activities that can assist the pedagogical practice of teachers.