O Programa Jovem de Futuro e a educação ambiental crítica: movimentos antagônicos representativos da hegemonia capitalista e da resistência emancipatória no âmbito da educação pública

Abstract

The Jovem de Futuro Program, implemented in state high schools by the Minas Gerais State Department of Education through a public-private partnership with the Unibanco Institute / Itaú Bank, is considered in this research as a representation of neoliberal capitalist hegemony at the core of the ongoing privatization of public education in Brazil. In contrast, Critical Environmental Education, by unveiling the interrelations among social, political, economic, and educational dimensions, is understood as an anticapitalist force oriented toward the pursuit of socio-environmental justice within a process of resistance and emancipatory transformation. Employing a qualitative approach grounded in historical-dialectical materialism, the research developed analytical categories that deepened the understanding of the conjunctural relations shaping contemporary society, guided by the central question: “How can Critical Environmental Education, focused on socio-environmental justice, confront the neoliberal capitalist hegemony imposed by the Programa Jovem de Futuro in a Minas Gerais state high school?”. In light of critical theoretical frameworks, the methodological triangulation between document analysis and narrative interviews with the subjects experiencing public schooling allowed for a more comprehensive understanding of the complexity of the investigated phenomenon, considering its historical and social determinants. Reflections on the general objective - to understand the pedagogical potential of Critical Environmental Education oriented toward socio-environmental justice in response to the subversion of neoliberal capitalist hegemony imposed by the Programa Jovem de Futuro in a high school under the jurisdiction of SRE/Juiz de Fora during the period from 2019 to 2024 - enabled the unveiling of disruptions that manifest dialectically in everyday practices confronting the hegemonic educational structures imposed by the capital-representing dominant class.