A educação ambiental nas instituições de ensino superior: uma experiência no IFTO- Campus Porto Nacional

Abstract

The National Environmental Education Policy (PNEA) (Law 9795/99) brings as one of its basic principles Environmental Education through a pluralism of pedagogical ideas in the perspective of inter, and transdisciplinarity. In this sense, we propose to develop a research on the teaching and practice of Environmental Education, from the study at the Federal Institute of Tocantins (IFTO) in the city of Porto Nacional - TO, presenting the reflections and challenges for insertion of Environmental Education in courses. Thus, the questions for the research are: How does the environmental education in the higher education courses in the IFTO-Campus Porto Nacional? How do teachers perceive and effectively develop environmental education? How does the environment and society relate to Environmental Education related subjects in the higher education courses at IFTO-Campus Porto Nacional? Thus, the general objective of this work is to analyze the teaching and practice of environmental education in higher education courses from the IFTO-Campus Porto Nacional. And as specific objectives: To understand the teaching and practice of Environmental education in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). To present the relation environment and society in the perspective of a critical environmental education in HEIs. To verify the importance of the Environmental Education in the training of the academics of the superior courses in the IFTO Campus Porto Nacional - TO. To point out the difficulties, facilities and possibilities that IFTO teachers find for an environmental education project. The present work has a qualitative quantity character with an exploratory approach, which is divided in stages, being: document analysis, bibliographic research, observation in classrooms, preparation of interview script with closed and open questions, interview performance, analysis of the data, and the last step is the presentation of the survey. The disciplinary character of formal education makes it difficult for the student to learn, does not stimulate problem solving, and does not establish connections between facts. Therefore, when thinking about environmental education, it comes through an interdisciplinary action. Certainly, this recognition of EA in vocational training can be considered an advance for higher education, since the student is able to better understand environmental issues in this relation: man and society, thus contributing to a more reflexive and comprehensive professional practice with environmental issues in their entirety.