PEDAGOGICAL POLITICAL PROJECTS AND TEACHING PRACTICES REGARDING ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN QUIRINÓPOLIS, GOIÁS, BRAZIL

Abstract

The Pedagogical Political Project (PPP) is a mandatory school management document for public schools, established by Brazilian federal legislation. In this regard, this research aimed to analyze how Environmental Education (EE) is included in the PPP and whether there is a provision for EE as a common component of the disciplines to be developed in an interdisciplinary and transversal manner in public elementary schools (final years) and high schools in the city of Quirinópolis, Goiás; and to understand how EE is approached in public schools in this city and the engagement of teachers in the planning and execution of projects related to EE, through interviews with semi-structured questionnaires. EE is not effectively foreseen in the PPPs in schools in Quirinópolis, and EE is listed in these documents merely to comply with the mandatory approach to the topic, and is not addressed in interdisciplinary projects. Cross-cutting and interdisciplinarity, within the scope of EE, are incipient and rarely addressed in the PPPs, without the necessary detail for their effective practice. Environmental education is only considered in its early stages on specific dates related to the environmental agenda. Most teachers, even with adequate academic training and feeling qualified, listed the extensive curriculum to be completed during the school year and the lack of teaching materials related to the topic as problems that prevent or hinder the development of environmental education actions, in addition to the absence of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects that prevent or hinder the approach to environmental education in formal education.