Educação ambiental como disciplina na formação dos biólogos: um estudo de caso na Universidade Federal de Uberlândia

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyze the subject \"Environmental Education\" offered in the course of Biological Sciences - Federal University at Uberlândia, from 2009/1-2, to understand its limits and possibilities for the improvement of the Environmental Education in the formation of a biologist. The parameters and guidelines were taken from Tbilisi theoretical discussion. The discussion about subject, specialization, curriculum and (inter)disciplinarity in the context of the ongoing paradigm changes in Science also was considered to the analysis and the relationship between Biology and environmental issues. Within the qualitative research, we have chosen the case study, which has been widely used since the 1990s by researchers of Environmental Education. We have selected the discipline as a case, covering the students, the teacher in charge, practices in the classroom and in the field, as well as its insertion in the area of Teaching Practice of the Course Pedagogical Program and at the Institute of Biology of UFU. The strategies for the construction of the survey data were observation and participation in class in two semesters, analysis of the pedagogical course program, a questionnaire for students, interviews with some students who attended the courses and interview with the teacher in charge. The data analysis allowed the construction of the following categories: the subject in the course pedagogical project of the course; the subject in the course; the hours and location of the subject in the curriculum; the subject and students\' conceptions about Environmental Education; the teaching strategies in the subject; cultural studies in the subject; the subject and the research in Environmental Education; (inter)disciplinarity of the subject and the teaching practices during the subject. The research evidenced the difficulty for interdisciplinary work between the teachers; offering the discipline at the end of the course decreased the chances of the students involvement in research in the area, and the great volume and complexity of the texts used brought difficulties to the future biologists; despite the strangeness of the students to the anthropogenic nature adopted in the subject, it was very appreciated by them; no major advances were found in the students conception of Environmental Education; the course hours were insufficient for practice as well as for the development of projects of social changes; cultural studies permeated the subject with a well explored use of films and texts quite instigating. Data analysis subsidized by the theoretical referential chosen indicated that the offer of Environmental Education as a discipline, though it doesn t constitute in an ideal situation consists of an advance to its insertion on the course and that the course meets some assumptions for environmental education waved in Tbilisi going beyond these guidelines under the influence of other theoretical contributions that support the discussions in the area.