abstract: Balancing conservation goals and needs of local residents is always challenging. While some believe protected areas are a safe paradise for wildlife, others suggest that it is shortsighted to ignore the social and economic challenges faced by people who live adjacent to protected areas when addressing conservation objectives. This dissertation explores the link between biodiversity conservation and environmental education programs (EEPs) administered to residents of buffer zones adjacent to three protected areas in the Terai Arc Landscape, Nepal. Using surveys and interviews, this study examined 1) the influence of EEPs on attitudes of local people toward biodiversity conservation; 2) the influence of EEPs on conservation behavior; 3) the responses toward biodiversity conservation of local people residing in buffer zones who have received different levels of EEPs; and 4) the effect of EEPs on wildlife populations within adjacent protected areas. Local people who had participated in EEPs and attended school were more likely to express a positive attitude toward conservation goals than participants who had not participated in EEPs or had the opportunity to attend school. Participation in EEPs and level of education favored expressed behavior toward conservation goals, such as making contributions for conservation or supporting anti-poaching patrols. However, EEP participants and non-participants were equally likely to engage in activities that were at odds with positive conservation behavior, such as collecting fuel wood or killing wildlife to protect their farm or feed their families. A direct comparison of EEPs given by schools versus non-government organizations showed that EEPs were largely ineffective in promoting positive conservation attitudes and behaviors. Despite heavy poaching of charismatic species such as the greater one-horned rhinoceros or tiger over past decades, Nepal recently celebrated ‘zero poaching years’ in 2011 and 2013, largely due to increased anti-poaching enforcement. The relationship between EEPs and the decline in poaching is unclear, although local officials all claimed that EEPs played an important role. These results indicate that current administration of EEPs in Terai buffer zone communities is inadequate, while also providing evidence that properly administrated EEPs may become a valuable investment for these protected areas to achieve long-term success. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Biology 2015

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-07-07Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:13:10Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 neves_jp_me_bauru.pdf: 1508449 bytes, checksum: c156b20cbc90b8f8c72a3a359b725635 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) / Entres os desafios da inserção da educação ambiental no ensino formal, destaca-se a carência de uma formação crítica de alguns professores e educadores ambientais, que muitas vezes desenvolvem uma prática educativa superficial, pontual ou romantizada. A educação ambiental crítica - que se prentende transformadora e emancipatória - entende, que, para que a educação seja um instrumento de transformação da realidade, capaz de contribuir para a construção de uma sociedade sócio e ambientalmente sustentável, deve caracterizar-se como um processo político (intencional) de apropriação crítica e reflexiva de conhecimentos, atitudes, valores e comportamentos. Com o objetivo de refletir sobre a prática educativa ambiental de escolas públicas municipais de uma cidade interiorana, visando compreender seus desafios, limites, conquistas e sucessos, este estudo coletou informações, à luz da abordagem qualitativa de pesquisa, em uma pesquisa de campo. Professores, Coordenadores Pedagógicos e Diretores foram entrevistados em todas as escolas de Ensino Fundamental da Rede Municipal de Penápolis - SP. Como resultados, entendemos que alguns princípios da educação ambiental crítica, tais como a participação coletiva, interdisciplinaridade e a sustentabilidade estão presentes nas práticas de educação ambiental das escolas investigadas, mas que estas ainda necessitam ampliarem a compreensão crítica da complexidade e da construção histórica da realidade (e conseqüentemente, dos problemas sócios-ambientais). também se levantou a questão da necessidade da inserção da educação ambiental nas escolas através de sua presença efeitiva nos currículos da educação básica e dos cursos de formação de professores. A respeito da práxis educativa, somente através de intencional sistematização pedagógica... / Among the challenges of insertion of environmental education in the formal teaching, the lack of a critical formation from some teachers and environmental education calls attention, once they often develop a superficial, punctual or romanticized educational practice. The critical environmental education, intended to be transformative and emancipative, assumes that the education must be a political process (intentional) in appropriation of critical and reflexive knowledge, atitude, values and behavior, in order to make itself an instrument to transform the reality and contribute to the construction of a social and environmentally sustainable society. This study aims to reflect on the practice of environmental education in public schools from provincial town, seeking to understand their limitations, challenges, achievements and successes by collecting information from field survey based on the qualitative approach. Teachers, pedagogical coordinators and school directors were interviewed in all the elementary schools at the city of Penápolis, in the state of São Paulo. As a result, we identified that certain principles of critical environmental education, such as collective participation, interdisciplinaty and sustainable practices are present in the environmental education of the schools surveyed, but they still need to broaden their critical understanding of the complexity and historical construction of reality (and coinsequently, the socio-environmental problems). It also approached the issue of the insertion of environmental education in schols through its effective presence in the curriculum of basic education and teacher's training courses. Concerning the educational practice, only through the intentional systematization of pedagogical and methodological process the principles... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

A presente pesquisa objetivou identificar e compreender as representações sociais de educação ambiental de professores dos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental de escolas municipais de Pato Branco. Para isso, participaram da pesquisa 6 docentes de uma escola urbana e 6 de uma escola rural. Inicialmente apresentou-se a teoria das representações sociais, focalizando um breve histórico de seu surgimento, o seu conceito e desdobramentos, além dos processos de objetivação e ancoragem. Por conseguinte, ilustrou-se um entendimento de educação em seu sentido mais amplo, a compreensão da crise ambiental, sua contextualização baseada em encontros e congressos ocorridos em nível nacional e internacional e as correntes, conservadora e crítica, pelas quais a educação ambiental vem sendo desenvolvida no Brasil. Para complementar, foi explorada a temática da formação de professores e a introdução da educação ambiental nas práticas pedagógicas dos docentes. Como proposta metodológica delimitaram-se três instrumentos de coleta de dados: entrevista com as docentes, hierarquização de evocações e análise de documentos, como os planos de ensino das professoras e os projetos políticos pedagógicos de ambas as escolas. Para a análise dos dados utilizou-se a análise de conteúdo para identificar e compreender as representações de educação ambiental. A partir do material coletado, concluiu-se que as representações sociais de educação ambiental das professoras pesquisadas giram em torno da conscientização para respeitar e preservar o ambiente. Trata-se, então, de que essa educação consiste em um conjunto de procedimentos cujo fim é desenvolver a consciência para o respeito e a preservação do ambiente. Ambiente este considerado apenas em seus aspectos naturais. A técnica da hierarquização corroborou essa compreensão, que a representação social de educação ambiental tem a ver com o desenvolvimento da consciência para com o respeito e a preservação do ambiente. Na análise dos Projetos Políticos Pedagógicos das escolas bem como o caderno das professoras, observamos a inexistência quase que total de registros das atividades desenvolvidas em sala de aula. Nos relatos das entrevistas e na análise documental foram apontados que os diálogos sobre educação ambiental são realizados, porém ainda muito ligados às datas comemorativas. Também foi constatado que as práticas pedagógicas das pesquisadas repercutem, em certo sentido, os processos de formação das professoras em educação ambiental. Reforçou-se a questão da formação frágil dessas professoras, as quais são exigidas de muitas formas e realizam o que podem para não deixar os alunos sem acesso ao conhecimento, justificando, então, as atividades pontuais encontradas nos materiais dessas professoras. Faz-se necessário o desenvolvimento de políticas públicas voltadas para a educação ambiental que sejam destinadas aos professores em sala de aula, além do oferecimento de formação continuada com um enfoque ambiental e a distribuição de materiais nas escolas, uma vez que o tema é atual e já faz parte do cotidiano escolar em si. / This work aims to identify and comprehend the social representations of environmental education of teachers of the initial years of the elementary schools of the city of Pato Branco. This research involved six teachers of an urban school and six teachers of a rural school. Initially, is presented the social representation theory, with a brief overview of its origins, concepts and ramifications. It is also presented the processes of objectification and anchoring. Thus, an understanding of education is exemplified in its broader sense, an environmental crisis comprehension, its contextualization based in local and international conferences and the conservative and critical currents that form the main framework for the environmental education developed in Brazil. To complement, it is explored the thematic of teacher formation and the introduction of the environmental education in the pedagogical practices of the teachers. As methodological proposition, three instruments of collecting data are used: interview, hierarchization of the evocations and analysis of documents, such as, syllabus and political-pedagogic projects of both schools. To analyze the data, it is used content analysis to identify and comprehend the representations of the environmental education. Based on the collected data, it is concluded that the social representations of the environmental education revolves around the awareness to respect and preserve the environment. Therefore, this education consists in a set of procedures aiming to develop the awareness to respect and to preserve the environment which is only considered on its natural aspects. The hierarchization technique corroborates this comprehension that the social representation of environmental education is related to development of the awareness regarding the respect and preservation of the environment. In the analysis of the syllabus and the class diary of the teachers, it can be observed almost total inexistence of registered activities developed in class. During the interviews and the documental analysis it can be noted that dialogs about environmental education are carried out. However, they are still related to commemorative dates. It is also noted that pedagogical practices of the interviewed people reflect, in a certain sense, the processes of formation of the teachers of environmental education. It is stressed the fragile formation of those teachers that are demanded, in several ways, to realize what is possible in order to not leave the students without the access to the knowledge, therefore justifying the point-specific activities found in the teacher’s materials. It is necessary the development of public policies related to the environmental education focused on teachers, beyond providing continuous formation also focused on environmental education and the distribution of related materials in schools, since the subject is current and it is part of the daily routine of the schools.

A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo compreender as representações sociais de professores sobre meio ambiente e a relação destas representações com as práticas pedagógicas em educação ambiental informadas pelos educadores sujeitos da pesquisa. Desse modo, este estudo circula pelas áreas da educação e da psicologia social. Os sujeitos desta pesquisa compreendem uma população de 51 professoras que atuam nos quartos e quintos anos do Ensino Fundamental da rede municipal de ensino de Pato Branco, município localizado na região Sudoeste do Paraná. Apresenta-se uma revisão bibliográfica sobre representações sociais de meio ambiente, a partir da teoria das Representações Sociais de Serge Moscovici; outra sobre a problemática ambiental e a educação ambiental, e a partir dessa revisão, concorda-se com a compreensão crítica de educação ambiental, a qual embasa a análise dos dados coletados sobre esse constructo; e uma revisão bibliográfica sobre prática pedagógica em educação ambiental, a partir da qual, concorda-se igualmente com a compreensão crítica. Como propostas metodológicas delimitam-se três técnicas de coleta de dados, a saber: técnica de evocação livre, baseada na Teoria do Núcleo Central das Representações Sociais, aplicada ao total da população, ou seja, 51 sujeitos; análise documental de registros docentes; e entrevista semi-estruturada, analisadas a partir da teoria de análise de conteúdo. Estas últimas etapas foram aplicadas com oito sujeitos. A partir da análise de todos os dados, concluiu-se que as representações sociais de meio ambiente da maioria dos professores da rede de ensino fundamental de Pato Branco é “conscientizar para preservar a natureza”, uma compreensão de foco naturalista e que possui aspectos antropocêntricos. As análises das entrevistas e dos documentos apresentaram resultados complementares. De acordo com esses resultados, todas as professoras realizam atividades pedagógicas voltadas à educação ambiental, e 75% da amostra apresentam práticas pedagógicas em educação ambiental fortemente voltadas a práticas conservadoras. Correlacionando os dados encontrados a respeito de representação social de meio ambiente e de práticas pedagógicas, conclui-se que a compreensão de meio ambiente dos professores dos anos finais do Ensino Fundamental da rede de ensino de Pato Branco repercute diretamente nas práticas pedagógicas por eles desenvolvidas em educação ambiental. Observa-se também que as práticas pedagógicas utilizam como ferramentas elementos midiáticos e projetos da iniciativa privada, os quais se intitulam como voltados à educação ambiental e apresentaram igualmente uma concepção de preservação da natureza. Desse modo, compreendendo criticamente, observa-se que os resultados encontrados reverberam concepções históricas, culturais e sociais. De todo modo, sendo a educação ambiental uma ferramenta de mudanças e os professores um de seus principais utilizadores, faz-se necessário auxiliar os docentes a refletir sobre meio ambiente tornando-se sujeitos atuantes na formação de compreensões críticas sobre natureza, cidadania, sociedade, Geografia, História, Matemática, Português e outros campos de saber. / The main objective of this research is to comprehend the social representations of teachers about environment and the relationship between those representations andthe pedagogic practices in environmental education informed by the educator subjects of the research. Thereby, the subjects of this study comprehend a population of 51 teachers acting in the fourth and fifth grades of the Elementary School of the municipal education network of Pato Branco, city located in the Southwest region of Paraná. A bibliographic review is presented about environment social representations from the Theory of the Social Representations of Serge Moscovici; another one about the environment matter and environmental education, and, from this review, it’s agreed to the critical comprehension of environmental education, which underlies the analysis of the collected data about that construct; and a bibliographic review about pedagogic practice in environmental education, from which it’s also agreed to the critical comprehension. As methodological proposal, three instruments of data collecting are delimited, namely: free evocation technique, based on the Theory of Social Representations Central Core, applied to all the population, in other words, 51 subjects; documental analysis of teacher registries; and semi-structured interview, analyzed from the theory of content analysis. Those last steps were applied to eight subjects. From the analysis of all the data, it was concluded that the social representations about environment of most of the teachers of PatoBranco’s Elementary School network is “apprize to preserve the nature”, a naturalist-focused comprehension with anthropocentric aspects. The analysis of the interviews and the documents showed complimentary results. According to those results, all the teachers perform pedagogic practices directed to environmental education e 75% of that sample present pedagogical practices in environmental education strongly directed to conservative practices. Correlating the found data about social representation of environment and pedagogical practices, it’s concluded that the environment comprehension of teachers of the final years of the Elementary School of PatoBranco’s education network echoes directly to the pedagogical practices developed by them in environmental education. It’s observated that the pedagogic practices use as tools mediatic elements and private initiative projects, which are environmental education oriented and present a nature preservation focus. Thereby, critically comprehending, it’s observed the found results echo historical, cultural and social conceptions. Anyway, being the environmental education a tool for changes and the teachers one of the its main users, it’s necessary to help them to think about environment becoming acting subjects in the formation of critical comprehensions about environment, citizenship, society, geography, history, mathematics, Portuguese and other fields of knowledge.

A presente pesquisa objetivou identificar e compreender as representações sociais de educação ambiental de professores dos anos iniciais do ensino fundamental de escolas municipais de Pato Branco. Para isso, participaram da pesquisa 6 docentes de uma escola urbana e 6 de uma escola rural. Inicialmente apresentou-se a teoria das representações sociais, focalizando um breve histórico de seu surgimento, o seu conceito e desdobramentos, além dos processos de objetivação e ancoragem. Por conseguinte, ilustrou-se um entendimento de educação em seu sentido mais amplo, a compreensão da crise ambiental, sua contextualização baseada em encontros e congressos ocorridos em nível nacional e internacional e as correntes, conservadora e crítica, pelas quais a educação ambiental vem sendo desenvolvida no Brasil. Para complementar, foi explorada a temática da formação de professores e a introdução da educação ambiental nas práticas pedagógicas dos docentes. Como proposta metodológica delimitaram-se três instrumentos de coleta de dados: entrevista com as docentes, hierarquização de evocações e análise de documentos, como os planos de ensino das professoras e os projetos políticos pedagógicos de ambas as escolas. Para a análise dos dados utilizou-se a análise de conteúdo para identificar e compreender as representações de educação ambiental. A partir do material coletado, concluiu-se que as representações sociais de educação ambiental das professoras pesquisadas giram em torno da conscientização para respeitar e preservar o ambiente. Trata-se, então, de que essa educação consiste em um conjunto de procedimentos cujo fim é desenvolver a consciência para o respeito e a preservação do ambiente. Ambiente este considerado apenas em seus aspectos naturais. A técnica da hierarquização corroborou essa compreensão, que a representação social de educação ambiental tem a ver com o desenvolvimento da consciência para com o respeito e a preservação do ambiente. Na análise dos Projetos Políticos Pedagógicos das escolas bem como o caderno das professoras, observamos a inexistência quase que total de registros das atividades desenvolvidas em sala de aula. Nos relatos das entrevistas e na análise documental foram apontados que os diálogos sobre educação ambiental são realizados, porém ainda muito ligados às datas comemorativas. Também foi constatado que as práticas pedagógicas das pesquisadas repercutem, em certo sentido, os processos de formação das professoras em educação ambiental. Reforçou-se a questão da formação frágil dessas professoras, as quais são exigidas de muitas formas e realizam o que podem para não deixar os alunos sem acesso ao conhecimento, justificando, então, as atividades pontuais encontradas nos materiais dessas professoras. Faz-se necessário o desenvolvimento de políticas públicas voltadas para a educação ambiental que sejam destinadas aos professores em sala de aula, além do oferecimento de formação continuada com um enfoque ambiental e a distribuição de materiais nas escolas, uma vez que o tema é atual e já faz parte do cotidiano escolar em si. / This work aims to identify and comprehend the social representations of environmental education of teachers of the initial years of the elementary schools of the city of Pato Branco. This research involved six teachers of an urban school and six teachers of a rural school. Initially, is presented the social representation theory, with a brief overview of its origins, concepts and ramifications. It is also presented the processes of objectification and anchoring. Thus, an understanding of education is exemplified in its broader sense, an environmental crisis comprehension, its contextualization based in local and international conferences and the conservative and critical currents that form the main framework for the environmental education developed in Brazil. To complement, it is explored the thematic of teacher formation and the introduction of the environmental education in the pedagogical practices of the teachers. As methodological proposition, three instruments of collecting data are used: interview, hierarchization of the evocations and analysis of documents, such as, syllabus and political-pedagogic projects of both schools. To analyze the data, it is used content analysis to identify and comprehend the representations of the environmental education. Based on the collected data, it is concluded that the social representations of the environmental education revolves around the awareness to respect and preserve the environment. Therefore, this education consists in a set of procedures aiming to develop the awareness to respect and to preserve the environment which is only considered on its natural aspects. The hierarchization technique corroborates this comprehension that the social representation of environmental education is related to development of the awareness regarding the respect and preservation of the environment. In the analysis of the syllabus and the class diary of the teachers, it can be observed almost total inexistence of registered activities developed in class. During the interviews and the documental analysis it can be noted that dialogs about environmental education are carried out. However, they are still related to commemorative dates. It is also noted that pedagogical practices of the interviewed people reflect, in a certain sense, the processes of formation of the teachers of environmental education. It is stressed the fragile formation of those teachers that are demanded, in several ways, to realize what is possible in order to not leave the students without the access to the knowledge, therefore justifying the point-specific activities found in the teacher’s materials. It is necessary the development of public policies related to the environmental education focused on teachers, beyond providing continuous formation also focused on environmental education and the distribution of related materials in schools, since the subject is current and it is part of the daily routine of the schools.

A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo compreender as representações sociais de professores sobre meio ambiente e a relação destas representações com as práticas pedagógicas em educação ambiental informadas pelos educadores sujeitos da pesquisa. Desse modo, este estudo circula pelas áreas da educação e da psicologia social. Os sujeitos desta pesquisa compreendem uma população de 51 professoras que atuam nos quartos e quintos anos do Ensino Fundamental da rede municipal de ensino de Pato Branco, município localizado na região Sudoeste do Paraná. Apresenta-se uma revisão bibliográfica sobre representações sociais de meio ambiente, a partir da teoria das Representações Sociais de Serge Moscovici; outra sobre a problemática ambiental e a educação ambiental, e a partir dessa revisão, concorda-se com a compreensão crítica de educação ambiental, a qual embasa a análise dos dados coletados sobre esse constructo; e uma revisão bibliográfica sobre prática pedagógica em educação ambiental, a partir da qual, concorda-se igualmente com a compreensão crítica. Como propostas metodológicas delimitam-se três técnicas de coleta de dados, a saber: técnica de evocação livre, baseada na Teoria do Núcleo Central das Representações Sociais, aplicada ao total da população, ou seja, 51 sujeitos; análise documental de registros docentes; e entrevista semi-estruturada, analisadas a partir da teoria de análise de conteúdo. Estas últimas etapas foram aplicadas com oito sujeitos. A partir da análise de todos os dados, concluiu-se que as representações sociais de meio ambiente da maioria dos professores da rede de ensino fundamental de Pato Branco é “conscientizar para preservar a natureza”, uma compreensão de foco naturalista e que possui aspectos antropocêntricos. As análises das entrevistas e dos documentos apresentaram resultados complementares. De acordo com esses resultados, todas as professoras realizam atividades pedagógicas voltadas à educação ambiental, e 75% da amostra apresentam práticas pedagógicas em educação ambiental fortemente voltadas a práticas conservadoras. Correlacionando os dados encontrados a respeito de representação social de meio ambiente e de práticas pedagógicas, conclui-se que a compreensão de meio ambiente dos professores dos anos finais do Ensino Fundamental da rede de ensino de Pato Branco repercute diretamente nas práticas pedagógicas por eles desenvolvidas em educação ambiental. Observa-se também que as práticas pedagógicas utilizam como ferramentas elementos midiáticos e projetos da iniciativa privada, os quais se intitulam como voltados à educação ambiental e apresentaram igualmente uma concepção de preservação da natureza. Desse modo, compreendendo criticamente, observa-se que os resultados encontrados reverberam concepções históricas, culturais e sociais. De todo modo, sendo a educação ambiental uma ferramenta de mudanças e os professores um de seus principais utilizadores, faz-se necessário auxiliar os docentes a refletir sobre meio ambiente tornando-se sujeitos atuantes na formação de compreensões críticas sobre natureza, cidadania, sociedade, Geografia, História, Matemática, Português e outros campos de saber. / The main objective of this research is to comprehend the social representations of teachers about environment and the relationship between those representations andthe pedagogic practices in environmental education informed by the educator subjects of the research. Thereby, the subjects of this study comprehend a population of 51 teachers acting in the fourth and fifth grades of the Elementary School of the municipal education network of Pato Branco, city located in the Southwest region of Paraná. A bibliographic review is presented about environment social representations from the Theory of the Social Representations of Serge Moscovici; another one about the environment matter and environmental education, and, from this review, it’s agreed to the critical comprehension of environmental education, which underlies the analysis of the collected data about that construct; and a bibliographic review about pedagogic practice in environmental education, from which it’s also agreed to the critical comprehension. As methodological proposal, three instruments of data collecting are delimited, namely: free evocation technique, based on the Theory of Social Representations Central Core, applied to all the population, in other words, 51 subjects; documental analysis of teacher registries; and semi-structured interview, analyzed from the theory of content analysis. Those last steps were applied to eight subjects. From the analysis of all the data, it was concluded that the social representations about environment of most of the teachers of PatoBranco’s Elementary School network is “apprize to preserve the nature”, a naturalist-focused comprehension with anthropocentric aspects. The analysis of the interviews and the documents showed complimentary results. According to those results, all the teachers perform pedagogic practices directed to environmental education e 75% of that sample present pedagogical practices in environmental education strongly directed to conservative practices. Correlating the found data about social representation of environment and pedagogical practices, it’s concluded that the environment comprehension of teachers of the final years of the Elementary School of PatoBranco’s education network echoes directly to the pedagogical practices developed by them in environmental education. It’s observated that the pedagogic practices use as tools mediatic elements and private initiative projects, which are environmental education oriented and present a nature preservation focus. Thereby, critically comprehending, it’s observed the found results echo historical, cultural and social conceptions. Anyway, being the environmental education a tool for changes and the teachers one of the its main users, it’s necessary to help them to think about environment becoming acting subjects in the formation of critical comprehensions about environment, citizenship, society, geography, history, mathematics, Portuguese and other fields of knowledge.

Essa pesquisa tem como intuito refletir sobre a Educação Ambiental (EA) tomando como referência os aportes teóricos de diversos estudiosos da área e a análise dos projetos de EA desenvolvidas em uma dada escola pública municipal de Ribeirão Preto/SP. Não é suficiente afirmar que a escola desenvolve atividades de EA sem considerar o contexto em que essas ações ocorrem, bem como as intencionalidades que definem sua presença no cotidiano de nossas escolas. Não se trata de identificar o certo e o errado, mas integrar teorias e práticas a partir de um olhar crítico e incentivador de abordagens que sejam, de fato, transformadoras e emancipatórias. Esta pesquisa possui contornos da abordagem qualitativa aplicada à área educacional. Como nossa intenção é analisar as ações de EA empreendidas em espaços escolares e perceber as possibilidades e intencionalidades que acompanham essas iniciativas, optamos pelo estudo de caso tomando como foco uma escola de Ensino Fundamental da rede municipal de Ribeirão Preto/SP. Para atender aos objetivos da pesquisa, os procedimentos metodológicos envolvem a análise documental e entrevistas, além de levantamentos bibliográficos na área educacional e na área específica da EA. Entendemos que a EA pode estar ligada a variados interesses, assumindo posições político-pedagógicas conectadas a ideais conservadores ou a princípios críticos e transformadores. Essa pesquisa considera o estudo detalhado dos projetos de EA empreendidas na escola de grande relevância para compreendermos seus impactos na rede municipal de ensino e, claro, na qualidade da educação oferecida aos nossos estudantes. As iniciativas presentes na escola pesquisada ainda carecem de maior fundamentação teórica para que a EA não seja ingênua e constituída por abordagens simplistas e generalizantes. Entendemos que a escola deve ser um espaço democrático e o mesmo princípio deve nortear os propósitos de EA assumidos em seu fazer pedagógico. O respeito à autonomia da escola na construção de suas ações em EA, a valorização de processos formativos (iniciais e continuados) que contemplem as reais necessidades dos professores e as discussões democráticas e permanentes em torno de um efetivo e coerente plano de trabalho são alguns dos elementos que identificamos como essenciais para que a EA cumpra seu papel transformador. / This research aims to reflect on Environmental Education, taking as reference the theoretical contributions of several scholars in the area and the analysis of the activities developed in a given public school in Ribeirão Preto/SP. It is not enough to say that the school develops Environmental Education activities without considering the context in which these actions occur, as well as the intentionalities that define their presence in the daily life of our schools. It is not about identifying right and wrong, but integrating theories and practices from a critical and encouraging view of approaches that are, in fact, transformative and emancipatory. This research has contours of the qualitative approach applied to the educational area. As our intention is to analyze the actions of Environmental Education undertaken in school spaces and to understand the possibilities and intentionalities that accompany these initiatives, we chose the case study focusing on a primary school of the municipal network of Ribeirão Preto/SP. In order to meet the research objectives, the methodological procedures involve documentary analysis and interviews, as well as bibliographic surveys in the educational area and in the specific area of Environmental Education. We understand that Environmental Education can be linked to varied interests, assuming political-pedagogical positions connected to conservative ideals or to critical and transformative principles. This research considers the detailed study of the Environmental Education actions carried out in the school of great relevance to understand its impacts on the municipal school network and, of course, on the quality of the education offered to our students. The initiatives present in the researched school still lack a greater theoretical foundation so that Environmental Education is not naive and consists of simplistic and generalizing approaches. We understand that the school should be a democratic space and the same principle should guide the purposes of Environmental Education assumed in its pedagogical work. Respect for the school\'s autonomy in the construction of its actions in Environmental Education, the valorisation of initial and continuous formative processes that contemplate the real needs of teachers and the permanent and democratic discussions around an effective and coherent work plan are some of the elements that we identify as essential for Environmental Education to fulfill its transforming role.

This study focuses on the lack of support services necessary to implement Environmental Education, in the Nsami Circuit, Limpopo Province. The aims of the study were, firstly, to investigate how teacher’s needs are neglected and how retraining of teachers is being relegated. Secondly, if Environmental Education were introduced in schools, to investigate the possibilities that it would create with regards to an awareness of local environmental issues. Thirdly, when projects are initiated at schools, to investigate the benefits to both teachers and learners. Lastly, to investigate the assumption that for any implementation of Environmental Education to be effective, teachers’ needs should taken care of, in terms of training through workshops as a way of helping them to adapt accordingly. An extensive literature review was undertaken to examine core areas of Environmental Education and the current curricula to establish where the emphasis of Environmental Education lay. The theoretical framework constructed from the review concluded with the premise that the issue of Environmental Education is of immense importance as reported in the NEEP-GET Project. The study, to investigate the essence and intensity of frustrations teachers’ experience in offering Environmental Education in South African schools, recommends that the Department of Education should treat the issue of training teachers through in-service training, seminars, workshops and other means a priority if effective and successful teaching and learning of Environmental Education is to be experienced. / Prof. H. G. van Rooyen

M.Ed. / The "hands off' kind of culture by South Africans towards the Environment is a serious concern. However it is encouraging to see that attempts are being made to improve the situation. The Environment and Environmental Education (EE) are receiving some attention in the formal education sector lately. The preservice (PRESET) sector of colleges of education was targeted by this study. This sector comprises teacher educators and teacher designates, it is on the basis of that, that their views were solicited in this attempt of making proposals for and EE curriculum framework for preservice teachers. These important stakeholders' views and expectations were used in making proposals for this Junior Primary Teachers Diploma (JPTD) EE curriculum framework. Essentially the content of such a curriculum framework should help in enviromnentalizing prospective teachers. The literature reviewed indicated that many countries of the world are engaged in the exercise of institutionalizing EE. This matter is receiving attention globally. Local and overseas initiatives have put EE in the forefront of educational discourse. Even though, there is still a lot of ground to be covered before EE can be viewed as having made significant impact in school systems. Indications are that, globally there is still a shortage of properly trained environmental educators. Colleges of Education in the Free State have to double efforts in addressing this problem_ Visits and interviews with Environmental studies lecturers at three (3) colleges of education in the Free State revealed disturbing inconsistencies. Great care was taken when proposals were made. The dictates and stipulations of outcomes based education (OBE) and curriculum 2005 were carefully considered. The proposals for JPTD EE curriculum framework were grounded on the latest trends in education. Flowing from that, this study views environmental educators as facilitators, not dispensers of knowledge. Learners should be enabled to construct knowledge by thinking and doing. Cross-curricular, interdisciplinary and integrated approach is viewed as critical in this study. Teaching and learning should be viewed from and environmental perspective. The success of the proposed EE curriculum framework for JPTD is dependent on colleges' preparedness to undergo fundamental changes. Management and lecturers have to facilitate this paradigm shift, so that permeation of subjects in the curriculum by EE can be implemented. This context compatible EE curriculum framework allows a large degree of flexibility for the colleges to determine how learners achieve specific and critical outcomes. Continuous assessment (CA) and assessment criteria, which take range statements and performance indicators into consideration, are acceptable. Lecturers' discretion is critical in this aspect; rigidity and prescriptions have been avoided. Recommendations by the following instances were carefully considered: Committee On Teacher Education (COTEP). Environmental Education Curriculum Initiative (EECI). Environmental Education Association of South-Africa (EEASA). South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). National Qualification Framework (NQF). Colleges of education in the Free State are faced with the challenge of im

This study was aimed at evaluating the interdisciplinary nature of environmental education within the colleges of education in Bophuthatswana. Data collection was based on semi-structured interviews with college lecturers and, to a lesser extent, on observations during a workshop with environmental educators from Bophuthatswana. Knowledge was gained about college related factors which influence the varying extent to which environmental education is being implemented within the colleges of education. Lecturers' understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of environmental education and related concepts was explored. Insights were also gained into problems of implementation which included lecturers' limited understanding of the concept of interdisciplinarity, structural ambiguities, limited training and experience, and a lack of clarity in both local and international literature on environmental education concepts and terms. Specifically the study sought to illuminate the dichotomy between theory and practice, the conflict between the dominant curriculum paradigm and the new emerging paradigm, and tensions between the interdisciplinary nature of environmental education and subject-based disciplines, which lead to problems of implementation. The study could make an important contribution to the current curriculum debate on environmental education in South Africa by illuminating the dichotomy between the theory and the practice of environmental education, and the problems involved in translating interdisciplinary approaches into workable classroom practices within discipline based curriculum structures.