A educação ambiental na formação inicial dos professores de química: a abordagem da temática e a aprendizagem da docência

Abstract

Teacher training in Brazil continues to be a relevant topic and subject to debate. Issues such as the quality of training courses, updating pedagogical practices, curricular restructuring and valuing the teaching career are still challenges to be faced in the Brazilian educational system – generally, discussions around these issues take place within Universities. Due to the established environmental crisis, Teacher Training from the perspective of Environmental Education is one of these challenges, since studies show that the inclusion of this theme in Basic School, when approached, has been conservatively, rarely by high school teachers. Chemistry, with specific actions, without promoting reflection or criticism. In this context, this Thesis aimed to investigate how the Graduates in Nocturnal Chemistry at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora are being trained in the perspectives of Environmental Education - since, possibly, they will work in Basic Education. The Qualitative and Interpretive Research was the basis for the theoretical direction aiming to analyze in a forceful way the researched universe. In obtaining data, Document Analysis of the Syllabuses, the Teaching Plans and the Pedagogical Plan of the Degree in Chemistry course and the normative documents that recommend the insertion of Environmental Education were used; application of questionnaires (for undergraduates and professors of the degree in Chemistry) and offering a workshop with eight training meetings (for undergraduates) – using Content Analysis to understand and interpret the data obtained. The results allowed inferring that the curricular structure of the analyzed course does not meet the normative recommendations for Environmental Education - among the analyzed components, we highlight in the Environmental Chemistry discipline directions for the study of chemical processes in the environment, which was in line with the responses of the trainer teachers when answering the questionnaire about the theme approach in their classes. The perceptions of undergraduates (freshmen and graduates) were classified (in the initial studies) as non-critical, conservative or pragmatic. On the other hand, the experiences lived during the workshop's formative meetings, point to a broadening of the horizons of teacher training with regard to Critical Environmental Education. The opportunities for sharing experiences and the reflective moments provided during the meetings enabled the participants to build and rebuild knowledge about the environmental theme, resulting in, in addition to the construction of pedagogical practice, a product aimed at Teaching Chemistry in Basic Education - making dialogues to contemporary socio-environmental aspects. In addition to the research objectives, proposals were indicated for the inclusion of Environmental Education in the “specific” Chemistry disciplines, resulting in a partnership in the construction of a chapter of the Environmental Chemistry handout for the Bachelor and Licentiate courses. Finally, we believe that the work developed here contributes to research in the field of Chemistry Teacher Training from the perspective of EA with regard to: expanding concepts, planning and teaching, as well as reinforcing curricular restructuring in terms of environmentalization.