Educação ambiental quadridimensional: uma proposta didática sob a perspectiva da Ecologia Humana

Abstract

Several studies point to the need for developing a more comprehensive approach to environmental education, emphasizing the importance of a multidimensional or complex perspective that promotes human (re)integration with nature as an indivisible part of their ecological relationships (Sauvé, 2005; Oliveira, 2007; Bach Júnior, 2007; Pelegrini; Vlach, 2011; Lovatto et al., 2011; Moreira; Gomes, 2017; Santos, 2019a; Kataoka; Morais, 2018; Melo, 2021). This broad approach involves considering all possible dimensions: physical, spiritual, social, cultural, political, economic, as well as the physical, chemical, and biological dimensions of the environment. However, most educational spaces continue to reproduce one-dimensional paradigms and biologist approaches in the teaching of environmental education, significantly compromising the transformative potential that this cross-cutting theme could achieve (Sauvé, 2005; Martins; Schnetzler, 2018). In this scenario, some researchers consider Human Ecology, a paradigm in the process of emergence in Brazil and worldwide since the early 20th century, as a field of study that can significantly contribute to multidimensional environmental education (Sá, 1996; Roiek; Rupolo, 2001; Catalão; Mourão; Pato, 2010; Soria, 2012; Dansa; Pato; Corrêa, 2012). In accordance with these researchers, the present investigation aims to develop a didactic proposal for multidimensional environmental education, targeting primary education teachers, based on the documentary analysis of the dimensions of academic production from the Postgraduate Program in Human Ecology and Socioenvironmental Management (PPGEcoH) at the State University of Bahia (UNEB) published between 2012 and 2021. The specific objectives of this research include categorizing the dimensions of study in the academic production of the mentioned postgraduate program and providing a proposal for multidimensional environmental education (educational material) as a didactic suggestion to primary education teachers based on the identified dimensions of study. The choice of this literature review is justified by the fact that it deals with publications of research conducted by the first Postgraduate Program in Human Ecology in Brazil, making it a traditional program and a reference for other Brazilian programs in the same field. The methodological approach for this research is qualitative, utilizing documentary investigations and epistemological contributions from Human Ecology and complexity theory to achieve the proposed objectives. For this purpose, a thematic content analysis procedure was applied to 97 academic works (books and dissertations) published between 2012 and 2021 on the website (www.ppgecoh.uneb.br) of PPGEcoH/UNEB. In addition to the thematic content analysis procedure, carried out through an in-depth reading of each of the analyzed works and the extraction of two direct quotations from each of them, textual analysis software Iramuteq was used as a complementary resource for data analysis and treatment. The results suggest that, within the delimited sample period, the academic production of the mentioned postgraduate program focuses on four fundamental dimensions, namely: the Body/Personal Dimension (which considers the body and mind as the first environment in which human individuals are contained), the Social Dimension (interpreting the diversity of human relationships within a systemic or ecological perspective), the Socioenvironmental Dimension (analyzing the human relationship with the physical, chemical, and biological environment), and the Eco-spiritual Dimension (recognizing the deeply emotional, subjective, and spiritual relationship of individuals or groups with the environment, other species, and the universe). Based on these results, a didactic proposal (educational material) was produced, referred to as Four-dimensional Environmental Education, as a pedagogical suggestion for primary education teachers aiming to contribute to teacher training towards promoting environmental education beyond the one-dimensional or biologist model. This research inevitably challenges current parameters of environmental education in school spaces and points to the need for teacher education (initial, ongoing, or permanent) that promotes a more empathetic, integrative, complex, and critical environmental education. Consequently, it advocates for multidimensional environmental education from the four-dimensional perspective of the Human Ecology paradigm.